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THE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 

OP THE 

BRITISH EMPIRE IN INDIA 

AND THE EAST. 


CHAPTER I. 

INDIAGEOGRAPHICAL POSITION—GEOLOGY—CLIMATE—PRODUCTIONS. 


It is essential to an efficient study of the his¬ 
tory of our empire in India, that a correct notion 
should he entertained of the extent, area, and 
characteristics of the territories now subjected 
to us,—the countries adjacent,—and those into 
which war has been carried more or less in 
connection with British Indian policy. Dr. 
Arnold weU expressed the importance of geo¬ 
graphical study in connection with the mate¬ 
rial and political condition of a people, when 
he observed, “Let me once understand the 
real geography of a country—its organic 
structure, if I may so call it; the form of its 
skeleton—that is, of its hills ; the magnitude 
and course of its veins and arteries—that is, 
of its streams and rivers; let me conceive of 
it as a whole, made up of connected parts; 
and then the position of man’s dwellings, 
viewed in reference to those parts, becomes 
at once easily remembered, and lively and 
intelligible besides.” 

India is perhaps more variously described, 
and with more discrepancy, than any other 
country in the world equally well known. 
It is customary to write of India, “on this 
side the Ganges,” and “India beyond the 
Ganges;” the former including British India, 
with the tributary and allied principalities; 
the latter, the Birman empire, Siam, Malacca, 
Cambodia, Cochin China, Tonkin, &c. The 
country more properly and strictly designated 
India, is the central peninsula of Southern 
Asia. Its boundaries are generally distinctly 
marked by natural limits—such as the Indian 
Ocean on the south, east, and west; the two 
gieat arms of that ocean—the Bay of Bengal 
and the Arabian Sea—washing the eastern 
and western shores respectively. The line 

VOL. I. 


of coast comprises about 3200 miles, of which 
1400 are touched by the Bay of Bengal. 
The peninsula extends from Cape Comorin, 
its southern point, to the north of Cashmere— 
a length of nearly 2000 miles; and from 
Assam to the river Indus it measures about 
1800 miles. Along its northern limits rise 
the range of the Himalaya Mountains; on the 
north-west, the mountains of Affghanistan: 
the north-eastern limits are less marked, still 
the conformation of the country gives a dis¬ 
tinct boundary. Assam, Chittagong, and 
Arracan, are the frontier lands in that direc¬ 
tion. The superficial area is variously esti¬ 
mated, and cannot with exactness be stated ; 
it is probably more than 1,300,000 square 
miles. 

Insular India includes Ceylon, the Laca- 
dive group, and the Maldives. Ceylon is 
separated from the south-eastern extremity 
of continental India by the Strait of Palk, and 
the Gulf of Manaar. The Lacadive Islands 
are off the Malabar coast, and the Maldives 
south of these. 

Beyond the limits of India Proper, Great 
Britain possesses vast territories, most of them 
of very recent acquisition. She has made 
conquests from the Birman empire—Assam 
is hers, and Pegu has been ceded to her. 
Prince of Wales’s Island (better known as 
Penang), Malacca, Singapore, Borneo, Hong- 
Kong (lately a portion of the Chinese em¬ 
pire), are British possessions. In the Straits 
of Babelmandel, Aden has been secured and 
fortified, enabling England to command the 
passage of the Red Sea, and to offer, in case 
of necessity, serious menace to the once proud 
and mighty dominion of Persia 

B 




2 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. I. 


It will facilitate the progress of description 
to notice first Insular India. 

Ceylon is about 270 miles long, by 140 
broad. Its conformation is oval, generally 
rising to the centre from the coast, the high¬ 
est point being more than 8000 feet above 
the level of the sea; it is called Pedrotalla- 
galla. The chief river, the Maharillaganga, 
takes its rise in the principal highlands, and 
finds its disemboguement in the harbour of 
Trincomalee. The coast-line of the island is 
interesting, and the harbour just named is 
excellent as a place for shipping, and exceed¬ 
ingly picturesque. The island, generally, is 
lovely: rich in soil, genial in climate, its 
foliage and flowers luxuriant and beautiful, 
a perpetual summer smiles upon the favoured 
residents of that hospitable isle ; the language 
of Heber is appropriate to it:— 

“ Where ev’ry prospect pleases, 

And only man is vile.” 

The island is remarkable for its production of 
rare spices; the cinnamon grows more abun¬ 
dantly than in any other country. Beautiful 
wood, in great variety, is obtained, which is 
not only elegant and useful to the resident, 
but an important article of commerce. Ebony, 
satin-wood, and iron-wood, are exported in 
considerable quantities. The pearl fisheries 
on the coast are sources of profit; thence 
chiefly the much prized pearls are brought 
to other parts of the world. The con- 
chology of the Indian Ocean is the most 
splendid of any body of waters on the globe. 
Ceylon shares this attribute; and on her 
coasts, and near her shores, shells of superior 
beauty, in vast numbers, are found. From a 
very remote antiquity Ceylon exported her 
products to remote parts; her spices, silk, 
and pearls, were known and appreciated many 
ages back; and an embassy from her prince, 
with especial reference to commercial objects, 
visited the court of the Roman emperor 
Claudius. Indeed, the antiquities of Ceylon 
are as remarkable as her climate and produc¬ 
tions, and prove that it was once inhabited 
by a superior race. Magnificent works for 
irrigation, temples, mausolea, and palaces of 
great magnitude and singular architectural 
beauty existed there when in England men 
knew not how, for architectural purposes, to 
lay one stone upon another. When the 
English wrested the island from the Dutch, 
they were astonished at its beauty, fertility, 
ruined cities, and pagodas; its commercial 
importance had been long known to them, 
and its possession eagerly coveted. 

The channel which separates the island 
from the mainland is about sixty miles. The 
name of Palk attached to the strait is derived 


from a celebrated Dutch navigator. The 
Gulf of Manaar is represented to derive its 
name from a little isle on the Ceylonese side 
but the origin of the term given to the isle and 
gulf is lost in obscure antiquity. A ridge of 
small banks completely obstructs the chan¬ 
nel for large vessels : this is called Adam’s 
Bridge, from a tradition that the island of 
Ceylon was the paradise of primeval inno¬ 
cence from which the first pair were banished. 
In the Hindoo mythology the divine hero 
Rama is said to have crossed to the conquest 
of the island by this ridge. In future pages 
of this History it will be necessary to give 
further description of the island; a general 
notice is all that is suitable here. The popu¬ 
lation is not much less than 2,000,000. They 
are a superstitious and servile race; yet when 
roused by an adequate appeal to their preju¬ 
dices and passions, they are not destitute of 
spirit, and are capable of cruelty and treachery 
to a degree in common with most Asiatic 
peoples. They make good soldiers; and the 
battalions of the Ceylon rifle regiment fre¬ 
quently serve with willingness and efficiency 
in the Madras presidency. The ancient 
capital, Kandy, is in the interior; the British 
capital, Colombo, is on the coast. 

The Lacadives are a group, seventeen in 
number, and are not in any way remarkable. 

The Maldives, as the name implies, com¬ 
prise more than a thousand isles and reefs. 
The word mal means thousand—a definite 
number put for an indefinite, which is com¬ 
mon in the Malabar language; diva means 
an island. These isles and reefs run in a 
chain of 500 miles from north to south; they 
are never more than fifty miles in breadth. 
Generally they are rocky and barren, but 
there are lovely spots dispersed among them, 
covered with rich tropical verdure, and crowned 
with the Indian palm. 

Continental India is variously designated : 
“the East Indies,” “British India,” and 
“ Hindoostan,” are the names most generally 
applied to it. Hindoostan is properly the 
name of a portion of India only. This name 
was originally given by the Persians, to indi¬ 
cate the dark complexion of the inhabitants. 
It is difficult to trace back any name given 
by the Brahmins to the country over which 
their doctrines prevailed, whole sentences of 
different signification having been employed 
for this purpose. The word Medhyana, 
which means central, was sometimes used by 
them, because, according to their mythology, 
the world was supported on the back of a 
tortoise, and India, it was supposed, occupied 
the middle place. The term Punyablunii 
was also used to designate it, as the land of 
virtue, or more probably as meaning the land 



Chap. I.] 


tN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


o 


ceremonially clean. According to one of their 
most treasured stories, a prince named Bharat 
was appointed hy his father, called “ conqueror 
of the universe,” to reign over the peninsula, 
and hence the name of Bharat Kund was 
applied to it. At present the whole country, 
from the Cahul frontier to the Birman empire, 
from Thibet to Cape Comorin, is known hy 
the general name of India, the word Hindoo - 
stan being generically employed to name the 
same territory, and specifically to distinguish 
the country in Northern and North-western 
India, of which Delhi is the capital. 

Before describing the physiognomy of the 
country, it is necessary to notice its chief 
political divisions, as reference must he made 
to them in the descriptions necessary to pre¬ 
sent the general features of the country. 

The territorial arrangements for purposes 
of government comprise three great provinces, 
each having certain dependencies, which are 
partly distinct-such as Scinde, the Punjaub, 
Oude, &c. Bengal, Bombay, and Madras, 
are the names of these provinces. The first- 
named is very large, and is upon the east of 
British India. It is hounded on the north 
hy Nepaul and Bhootan; to the south hy the 
Bay of Bengal; on the east hy Assam and 
Birmah; on the west by Bahar. To this pro¬ 
vince, for military and civil purposes, the Pun¬ 
jaub is attached as a sub-government. The 
alluvial plains of the Ganges and the Brahma¬ 
pootra are included in the Bengal presidency. 
Bombay occupies the west coast from the 
Gulf of Cambay, near to Goa. The capital 
of this presidency is situated on the island of 
Bombay, which is about ten miles long, and 
three broad, and is connected with the island 
of Salset by a causeway. It is separated by 
a narrow channel from the mainland. Ma¬ 
dras extends along the east coast to the 
borders of Bengal. The southern point of 
the peninsula is comprised in its coast range, 
and also a portion of the most southern part 
of the west coast. To these three presi¬ 
dencies all the separate governments and 
provinces of India are attached, by arrange¬ 
ments peculiar to each, according as the cir¬ 
cumstances varied by which the territory was 
acquired. 

The peculiar geographical features of India 
are striking and interesting. Its great extent 
of coast marks it in a very peculiar manner, 
and affords to a maritime people like the 
British facilities for maintaining their supre¬ 
macy, and for readily turning the resources 
of the country to account. 

The mountains of the peninsula are nume¬ 
rous, and afford extraordinary scope for in¬ 
vestigation in various branches of natural 
science. The Himalayan range forms the 


boundary on the north between India and 
Thibet. This is the loftiest and grandest 
range in the world. The highest peaks 
attain a height of 28,300 feet, a point of 
elevation reached nowhere else by any land. 
The appearance of this range is peculiar, re¬ 
vealing a succession of peaks, rising pointed 
to the heavens, and crowned with eternal 
snows, huge masses of ice hanging from 
their declivities— 

“ Torrents, raetMnks, that heard a mighty voice, 

And stopped at once amidst their maddest plunge.” 

Vast bodies of cloud collect upon the sides of 
these high mountains in many places, while 
in others they lift their bold brows, un¬ 
clouded, to the heavens. Every form of 
grandeur is presented amidst the scenes 
created hy the sublime and picturesque ar¬ 
rangement of these mountains. In some 
places they are clothed with verdure and 
woods far up their steeps—a vast sea of 
foliage, agitated by the mountain breeze, 
seems to flow along their sides, and to leap the 
precipices. In other regions the bald granite 
glitters in the sunshine, as if an ocean of bur¬ 
nished gold. Every conceivable shape and 
grouping of form is taken in endless modifi¬ 
cation, offering to the wearied eye a never- 
ceasing and ever-changing variety of outline 
as well as of costume. Within their own con¬ 
fines the scenery is still more wonderful. 
The adventurous traveller is amazed by the 
extent of tract, variety of mountain arrange¬ 
ment, and grotesqueness of grouping; the 
disposition of the valleys; their richness of 
dress and luxuriance of climate in many 
places; their murky and unhealthy character 
in others; their tropical fertility beneath a 
burning sun in the lowest ranges; their 
changing appearance and decreasing tempera¬ 
ture in the scale of ascent through every 
degree of the temperate zone, until the 
regions where Winter assumes his rigid 
sway, and looks with cold and stern eye 
upon the sunny plains, or comparatively 
modest highlands, which stretch far away to 
the waters of the Indian Ocean. The range, 
including the Hindoo Roosh, or Indian Cau¬ 
casus, stretches away from Affghanistan to 
the western provinces of China. It is nearly 
uniform as to its course, but occasional inter¬ 
ruptions as to the main direction occur from 
the lateral extension of some of its compo¬ 
nents. The name Himalaya is from a native 
designation, which signifies snowy, and indi¬ 
cates the general impression produced hy its 
appearance upon the native mind. 

The King of Prussia, who is alleged to 
take great interest in India in a religious 
reference, conceived the idea, some few years 



4 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. I. 


ago, probably suggested by Humboldt, of 
sending a scientific mission through Asia, 
preparatory to operations of a religious nature, 
for the benefit of its vast populations. In 
1854 this mission penetrated through India 
to Upper Asia, under the auspices of the 
East India Company. The proceedings of 
the gentlemen who fulfilled the important task 
were reported to the French Academy of 
Sciences, and were substantially as follows, 
so far as the high table-lands and mountain 
ranges of India were concerned, especially 
the Himalaya. The report of these Prussian 
travellers gives generally different elevations 
to those usually received. They represent 
the great central table-land of India as much 
lower than it has been hitherto computed, 
and there are various reasons, based upon 
climate and other phenomena, to believe that 
their representations are correct. The height 
of the most elevated portion of the Himalaya 
range is given on a previous page from the 
best modern standards, but, according to the 
paper sent by these German explorers to the 
Academy of Sciences, that elevation would be 
500 feet below the real one. The members of 
the mission consisted of three brothers—MM. 
Herrmann, Adolphus, and Robert Schlagent- 
weit, two of whom, MM. Herrmann and 
Robert, returned in June last; the third, M. 
Adolphus, is still among the Himalayan 
Mountains, and is expected soon to return, 
vid the Punjaub and Bombay. During the 
winters of 1854-55 these enterprising tra¬ 
vellers visited the region lying between 
Bombay and Madras; in the following, sum¬ 
mer M. Herrmann explored the eastern parts 
of the Himalaya, the Sikkim, Bhootan, and 
Kossin Mountains, where he measured the 
altitude of several peaks. The highest of all 
the summits known throughout the world 
appears, by his measurements, to be the 
Gahoorishanka, situated in the eastern portion 
of Nepaul—the same announced as such by 
Colonel Waugh, but called by him Mount 
Everest, because he had been unable to ascer¬ 
tain its real name in the plains of Hindoostan, 
where he effected his measurement. This 
peak is somewhat more than 29,000 English 
feet in height, and bears another name in 
Thibet, where it is called Chingoparnari. 
The other two brothers, MM. Adolphus and 
Robert, penetrated by different roads into 
the central parts of the Himalaya, Kumaon, 
and Gurwahl; they then visited Thibet in 
disguise, entered the great commercial station 
of Gartok, explored the environs of Lake 
Mansarowe, and that remarkable crest which 
separates the waters of the Indus from those 
of the Debong, often erroneously called the 
Burrampooter. They ascended the Ibi-Gam- 


nine, 22,260 feet in height, that being an 
altitude never before attained in any part of 
the world. After having been separated 
from each other for a space of fourteen 
months, during which M. Robert ascertained 
that the table-land of Amarkantak, in Cen¬ 
tral India, which is generally stated to be 
8000 feet above the level of the sea, is not 
more than 3300 feet in height, tbe three 
brothers again met at Simla, previous to 
commencing the operations intended for the 
summer of 1856. M. Adolphus, on leaving 
that place, crossed the Himalaya, went over 
Thibet, Baltistan, and visited the interesting 
spot where several mountain crests meet, and 
the Hindoo Koosh joins the range lying to 
the north of India. He then returned to the 
Punjaub, through the valley of Cashmere. 
MM. Herrmann and Robert proceeded to 
Ladak by different routes. Under good dis¬ 
guises they were enabled to penetrate into 
Turkistan, by crossing the Karakoroom and 
the Kuenluen Mountains, and descending 
into the great valley of Yarkand, a region 
never visited before, not even by Marco Polo. 
It is a vast depression of between three or 
four thousand feet, separating the Kuenluen, 
on the northern frontier of India, from the 
Syan Chane, or mountains of Central Asia, 
on the southern of Russia. They then re¬ 
turned to Ladak, and entered the Punjaub by 
different routes through Cashmere. After a 
two years’ negotiation, M. Herrmann was, at 
the commencement of 1857, admitted into 
Nepaul, where he determined the altitudes 
of the Machipoora and Mount Yasso, which 
have hitherto been vaguely called the Dha- 
walagery, which means “ snowy crests,” and 
is applicable to all snow-capped mountains. 
M. Robert proceeded to Bombay through 
Scinde, Kutsch, and Gujerat, where he sur¬ 
veyed the chain called the Salt Range, and 
determined the changes effected during cen¬ 
turies in the course of several rivers. Before 
returning to Europe, he stayed three months 
in Ceylon. M. Adolphus visited various parts 
of the Punjaub and Cabul previous to return¬ 
ing to the Himalaya. The chief results ob¬ 
tained from this careful exploration of Asia are 
the following :—The Himalaya Mountains 
everywhere exercise a decided influence over 
all the elements of the magnetic force; the 
declination everywhere presents a slight de¬ 
viation, causing the needle to converge to¬ 
wards the central parts of that enormous 
mass, and the magnetic intensity is greater 
than it would be elsewhere in an equal lati¬ 
tude. In the south of India the increase of the 
magnetic intensity from south to north is ex¬ 
tremely rapid. The lines of equal magnetic 
intensity have a remarkable form, similar and 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


5 


Chai\ I.] 

perhaps parallel to those of certain groups of 
isothermal lines. The three travellers have 
collected all the materials necessary to ascer¬ 
tain this important fact. Irregular local 
variations in terrestrial magnetism are rare 
in those regions. In the Deccan and Behar 
the rocks are magnetic. On the Himalaya, 
at altitudes of 17,000, and even 20,000 feet, 
the daily'maximum and minimum variations 
of the barometer occurred nearly about the 
same hour as in the plains below. Again, at 
the above altitudes the inversion of the curves 
of daily variation, which is met with on the 
Alps, does not take place. At the altitude of 
17,000 feet the diminution of transparency 
produced by a stratum of air of the thickness 
of 3000 feet is no longer distinguished by the 
eye. During the dust storms which fre¬ 
quently occur in India the disk of the sun is 
seen of a blue colour; if small bodies are 
made to project their shadows on a white 
surface, under such circumstances the shadow 
is of an orange colour, that is, complementary to 
blue. The expression, in the paper read before 
the Academy of Sciences, as given by Galig- 
nani, that the brothers Schlagentweit were the 
first to penetrate the Yarkand, is not correct. 
M. Hue, in his work entitled Christianity in 
China , relates that, a.d. 1603, Benedict Go£s, 
a Roman missionary, determined to solve the 
then mooted question whether Cathay and 
China were the same country, and the capital 
of Mongul Tartary, the Khanbalik, identical 
with Pekin. After unheard of efforts he at 
last reached Yarkand, his journey from 
Lahore having consumed ten months of con¬ 
tinuous toil. 

The intercourse with Thibet is maintained 
by passes of very high altitude, which are 
also difficult, intricate, and dangerous. The 
Tungrung Pass is at an altitude of 13,730 
feet; the Booreudo, 15,100; the Nitti, nearly 
17,000; the Churung, 17,350 feet ; the 
Manerung, 18,600; while the Pass of Nako, 
near the source of the Sutlej, the highest in 
the world, attains the level of nearly 19,000 
feet. The greatest height ever reached in 
the Himalayas previous to that ascended by 
the gentlemen of the Prussian mission was 
19,411 feet, attained by Captain Gerard, 
October 18th, 1818, on the Tarhigang, near 
the Sutlej, north of Shepke. These terrible 
passes, notwithstanding all their dangers from 
land-slips, precipitated masses of ice and 
snow, precipices, and the extreme cold, by 
which persons are sometimes frozen to death 
at mid-day, are the only media of communi¬ 
cation between India and Thibet, and are 
used far more extensively for commercial 
purposes by Eastern merchants than would in 
Europe be supposed likely or even possible. 


The natural curiosities of these regions are 
various, and to the traveller and man of 
science interesting. Mineral waters are 
found at very great elevations, and in regions 
of perpetual snow. Near the source of the 
Jumna are the springs of Jumnotree; these 
have a temperature of more than 190° and 
issue from snow caverns! The point of ele¬ 
vation is more than 10,000 feet. Rice has 
been boiled in the water of another spring 
on the same level as it gushed from its source. 
In many places petrifactions of rare beauty 
may be seen in every stage of formation, as 
the deposits previously held in solution by 
the waters dripping from the rocks, are laid 
upon the vegetable productions which sprout 
from the ledges beneath. Vegetation has 
been found at the following heights :— 


Feet. 

Horse-chestnut.10,368 

Maple.10,906 

Rhubarb and black currant.11,000 

Polyanthus.11,366 

Gooseberries.11,418 

Fields of rye and black wheat.11,782 

Holly.12,000 

Strawberries.12,642 

Buttercups and dandelions.13,000 

Spikenard.13,100 

Ooa, a species of barley.13,622 

Rye.13,700 

Apricots and beans.14,000 

Birch.14,600 

Firs and greensward.14,700 

Barley.14,710 

Campanula, in seed.16,800 

Small bushes.16,945 


The other mountain ranges of India are 
very inferior in altitude to the Himalayas, 
and are generally called by the natives 
ghauts. The word ghaut means a pass ; and 
by being applied to the very elevated pas¬ 
sages of the Himalayas, became gradually 
also to be given to any highlands not alto¬ 
gether impassable. 

In reference to elevation, the whole penin¬ 
sula might be described as a table-land, broken 
by lines of vast highlands, and divided by 
them into river valleys of great richness and 
extent. 

Parallel to the eastern and western coasts 
run two ranges, named, respectively, the 
Eastern and Western Ghauts. Neither of these 
approaches the coast, both being separated 
from the sea by low-lying skirts of country 
of considerable extent. The Western Ghauts 
are considerably higher than those which 
face the eastern coast, sometimes rising to a 
point 6000 feet above the level of the sea. 

The high table-land thus bounded was ori¬ 
ginally called the Deccan, to distinguish it 
from Northern India, the word being of 
Sanscrit parentage, signifying south. This 





















6 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


extensive plateau rises gradually from north 
to south, ending in a range stretching across 
the country, and called sometimes the South¬ 
ern Ghauts, hut better known as the Nil- 
gherry. At the northern extremity of this 
plateau there are two ranges, known as the 
Aravalli and the Vindaya, both going under 
the general name of the Northern Ghauts. 

Thus the mountain panorama of India is 
composed of six ranges : the Himalaya being 
the northern boundary of the peninsula; the 
Western Ghauts, ranging southward from 
the river Nerbuddah and the Gulf of Cam- 
bay, terminating in Cape Comorin, the ex¬ 
treme southern point of the peninsula. From 
nearly this point the Eastern Ghauts tend 
northward, preserving a tolerably equal dis¬ 
tance from the sea. The Vindaya range is 
next to the Himalaya, coming southward, 
and running from east to west; they cross 
the country from the Ganges to the Gulf of 
Cutch, sending out a spur far into the great 
desert towards Ajmeer. From the southern¬ 
most range (the Nilgherry) the land gra¬ 
dually, but not unbroken, descends to the 
sea. The other range, already named, bears 
various other designations, and is less im¬ 
portant. 

Various portions of these ranges, separated 
by conformation, and broken by immense 
ravines, receive especial designations; and 
the whole plateau of the Deccan is called by 
the natives Bala Ghaut , or the country above 
the ghauts (or passes). 

These mountain ranges naturally divide 
India. The Vindayas, passing from east to 
west between the twenty-third and twenty- 
fifth parallels of north latitude, form the 
grand basis of the orographical divisions of 
India into districts. North of the Vindayas, 
towards the Himalayas, are situated the 
deltas of the Ganges and the Indus, and 
what is called Central India. South of the 
Vindayas is the Deccan, as already described. 
Those portions of the Deccan south of the 
river Kistna is especially styled Southern 
India. 

The various mountain chains, and features 
of highland, form an infinite number of natu¬ 
ral territorial divisions, which are so differ¬ 
ently named, as to make it often difficult to 
identify them when noticed by different 
writers. The way in which the chains of 
hill separate the river courses conduces to 
great variety of climate, notwithstanding the 
low latitudes of the whole country; and while 
a peculiar uniformity and regularity is pre¬ 
served in the way in which the series of 
natural boundaries and divisions of territory 
are created, yet there is great diversity of 
outline and variety of scenery. Thus the 


[Chap, I, 

courses of the rivers Nerbuddah and Tapty 
are divided by the chain often called the 
Sautpoora; and the courses of the Tapty 
and Godavery are divided by what is some¬ 
times styled the Sechachull Mountains; but 
notwithstanding this regularity of division, 
and the general uniformity of climate, the 
aspects of the country are diverse exceed¬ 
ingly, and whatever variety river or moun¬ 
tain scenery can afford may in these districts 
be found. 

In the north of India a vast lowland tract 
extends in a curve from the mouths of the 
Ganges to those of the Indus. This curve 
converges to the west of Delhi. 

Southward of the Nilgherries the country^ 
to the sea is diversified; a low valley runs 
from the Pass of Coimbatore, as its narrowest 
width is called, across the whole country. 
The land thence rises and falls, not in a grace¬ 
ful or undulated manner, but by scattered 
hillocks and abrupt depressions, until it touches 
the eastern and western highlands that at>- 
proach nearest the sea. 

These mountain lands contain many lovely 
and sanitary situations, where the most taste¬ 
ful connoisseurs in landscape beauty might 
find delight, where the climate affords cool 
and refreshing breezes, and is not only com¬ 
paratively safe, but healthy and bracing. 
That portion of the Western Ghauts opposite 
to Bombay, called the Mahabalipoora Moun¬ 
tains, rising to the height of 5060 feet, fur¬ 
nishes an excellent site for the sanitorium of 
the presidency, at a spot called Mahabelesk- 
war. On the Nilgherry Mountains have 
been placed the sanitary stations of Ootaca- 
mund and Dimhutti. These stations are 
well known for the salutary effects upon 
those who are exhausted by the burning 
climate of the lower lands. All the other 
mountain districts afford situations adapted to 
those who have suffered from the heat of the 
plains, and every climate known in the world 
may be found from the base of Cape Comorin 
to the peak of the Himalayas. 

The rivers of India are truly magnificent, 
and in such a climate are naturally prized 
for their cooling and fertilising power. Su¬ 
perstition has taken advantage of this appre¬ 
ciation, and converted them into deities. The 
Ganges, especially, is an object of worship. 

The three principal rivers are the Ganges, 
the Brahmapootra, a,nd the Indus. These all 
originate in the snow-clad bosom of the 
Himalaya. The former two descend from 
different slopes, and pursue separate courses 
through a vast and varied extent of country, 
until meeting near their embouchure in the 
Bay of Bengal. Indeed, they can hardly be 
said to flow together, for soon after their 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


7 


Chap. I.] 

junction they divide into many currents, 
forming what is called the delta of the 
Ganges. The Ganges has two sources, both 
bursting forth from the glaciers of the Hima¬ 
laya in swelling torrents: one from the vici¬ 
nity of a temple built high up in a region 
which might have been supposed inaccessible. 
This Temple of Gungootrea is situated more 
than 13,000 feet above the level of the ocean. 
The Ganges, thus formed, rushes from the 
mountains near Hurdwar, running through 
the great plain of Bengal, south-east. In its 
course it receives many tributaries, several of 
these larger than the Thames, or even the 
Shannon. The Jumna flows into it at Allah¬ 
abad, and there, 800 miles from the sea, it is 
a mile in width. The delta commences 220 
miles from the sea. The river there throws off 
several branches to the west; these, mingling, 
form the arm called the Hoogly, which passes 
Calcutta, and which is the channel generally 
navigated. The main stream is joined by 
the Brahmapootra. The coast of the delta 
stretches 220 miles. The islands formed by 
the courses which struggle through the low 
marshy land are called the sunderbunds, or 
woods, because of the jungle by which they 
are covered. The waters which embrace 
these islands nurture crocodiles, and other 
dangerous amphibious creatures. The rhino¬ 
ceros is to be seen in the marshes, and the 
far-famed species of tiger known as Bengal 
finds many a prowling place within this wild 
district. 

The Brahmapootra runs a shorter course 
than the Ganges, but rolls in a mightier flood. 
Its sources are also in the Himalaya, and it 
is fed by rivers which chiefly flow from the 
Birman empire. The width, before its junc¬ 
tion with the Ganges, is between four and 
five miles. 

The Ganges and Brahmapootra, impelled 
by the vast bodies of melting snow descend¬ 
ing from the mountains, rise, and inundate 
immense districts of country. In the four 
rainy months, according to the estimate of 
the Rev. Mr. Everet, the discharge of water 
per second is 494,298 cubic feet. During 
the fine winter months the discharge is 
71,200 feet per second, and in the three hot 
months it sinks to 36,330 in that space of 
time. 

The Indus falls from the northern slopes of 
the Himalaya, but finds a passage through 
the mountains to the south, and rolls its flood 
onward to the Arabian Sea. It rises near to 
the Lake Manassarora, which is sacred in the 
Hindoo mythology; the name signifies “ the 
mental or spiritual lake.” The Sutlej is an 
offshoot from it. The principal confluent is 
the Chenab, which itself unites in its course 


the other four rivers of the Punjaub.* These 
are the Sutlej, the Beeas, the Ravee, and the 
Jhelum.j- The delta of the Indus presents 
to the coast an area of 120 miles. The river 
is irregular in that part of its course, and 
deficient in depth, offering various difficulties 
to its navigation. 

The waters of these rivers are much dis¬ 
coloured. Having their sources in elevated 
springs, much earthy matter is borne down 
to the plains. These plains are alluvial; 
and the rivers passing through no depres¬ 
sions in which lakes might be formed, and 
their alluvial freight deposited, they are 
necessarily much loaded with soil and minute 
fragments of rock. The Ganges is probably 
most tainted in this way, giving colour to 
the sea six miles from the coast. The Rev. 
Mr. Everet represents that river as discharge 
ing nearly six millions and a half cubic feet 
of earthy matter during the year, a quantity 
almost too enormous to suppose possible. 
That gentleman’s statements have, however, 
been corroborated. The members of the 
Prussian scientific mission, already referred 
to, tested the clearness of these rivers by let¬ 
ting down a stone into them, which generally 
became invisible at a depth of from twelve to 
fifteen centimetres (five to six inches), show¬ 
ing that they are overcharged with earthy 
particles ; for in the sea, near Corfu, a stone 
is visible to the depth of fifty feet, and in the 
seas under the tropics it remains visible at a 
depth of thirty feet. 

There are other rivers of great importance. 
Some of these traverse the eastern part of 
India, and are emptied into the Bay of Bengal. 
The Mahamuddy falls into the bay near 
Cuttack. Further south, the Godavery flows 
into the sea near the mouth of the Kistna, 
after receiving as affluents the Manjeera, the 
Wurda, and the Baumgunga. The Godavery 
springs from the Western Ghauts. Still 
further south, the Kistna has its birth, in 
the same range. Confluences are formed 
with it by the Beema and Toombudra: its 
disemboguement is at Masulipatam. The 
Pennar flows into the waters which wash the 
eastern coast, above the city of Madras. The 
most southern of the rivers which stream 
eastward is the Cavery, which, rising in 
the same ghauts, passes Tanjore, and empties 
itself by several mouths from the coast oppo- 

* In the neighbourhood of Attock, in the Punjaub, 
Alexander the Great is supposed to have crossed the 
Indus in his invasion of India. Tamerlane and Nadir 
Shah are reported to have crossed in the same place or its 
vicinity. 

f The Sutlej is the Zarodras of Ptolemy; the Beeas is the 
Hyphasis of Arrian ; the Ravee was designated by Arrian 
the Hydrastes. The Chenab received in classic descrip, 
tion the name of Acesines, and the Jhelum, Hydaspes. 






8 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. I. 


site the island of Ceylon. On the western 
side of the peninsula there is the Ban, which 
flows south of the Indus into the inlet of 
Rin, an extensive salt lake. The Bunvas 
empties itself into the Gulf of Cutch. The 
Mhye is discharged into the Gulf of Cambay. 
Larger than any of these are the Nerbuddah 
and the Tapty. The Tapty joins the ocean 
near Surat. The Nerbuddah is the largest 
river w r hich disembogues itself into the waters 
on the western coast, except the Indus, and 
is 600 miles long—a third of the length of 
its great competitor; it enters the sea at 
Baroche. 

The general features of the peninsula may 
he inferred from a description so extended of 
its mountains and rivers. For the most part 
the soil is alluvial, and rendered fertile by the 
overflowing of the great rivers. Along the 
course of the inferior rivers there is great 
richness, and cultivated country appears in 
every direction. In some places there are 
large tracts of jungle, especially near the 
hilly country of the Punjaub. The Run of 
Cutch, north of the gulf of that name, is low 
and flat, and extends east of the Indus, so as 
to form a district probably one-fourth' the 
size of Scotland. It nourishes only a few 
tamarisks, and is for the greater part of the 
year dry or fruitless. During the monsoon 
the sea is driven over it; and when the 
waters evaporate, a strong saline deposit is 
left—hence it is often called the Salt Desert. 
This remarkable district was formed by a 
sudden operation of nature. In June r 1819, 
the land sank down, and became a salt-water 
marsh, and a large mound, called the Ulla 
Bund, arose, and cut off one of the mouths 
of the Indus from the sea. There is 
evidence that this district has, during the 
probable historic period, been subjected to a 
series of alternate depressions and upheavings: 
a large space east of the Indus, which is now 
dry land, was, in the time of Alexander, 
covered by the waves. Indian traditions 
testify that over all that district, and a con¬ 
siderable distance inland, the sea swept. 
There are, near the Run of Cutch, two other 
salt lakes, or marshes, called Null and Boke, 
which appear to have been formed by sudden 
convulsion. India is remarkable for the 
fewness of its lakes of any kind; the only 
other considerable lake is in the centre of the 
Deccan. It is about 350 feet below the level of 
the surrounding country. The water it contains 
is nearly saturated with sub-carbonate of 
soda. Lava abounds in the neighbourhood, 
and other proofs exist that the depression is 
of volcanic origin. About one-eighth of the 
whole peninsula is a desert, covering 150,000 
square miles. It is not, however, entirely 


unproductive. Numerous oases are to he 
found, often of considerable extent, and of 
various degrees of cultivation. After the 
rains fall, jungle and coarse grass spring 
up in most parts of this otherwise sandy 
waste. The hot season soon reduces this 
fitful verdure, parching up all vegetable 
beauty, and nearly all vegetable life, through¬ 
out the great wilderness. The plain of the 
Ganges has more uniformity than that of the 
Indus. The former is low, rich, and teeming 
with vegetable and animal life—the richest 
part of India. The plain of the Indus is varied 
very much, some portions consisting of hard 
dry clay, some of barren rock, while others 
almost rival in fertility the Gangetic valley. 
In the Punjaub, where the country is in some 
places very productive, there are stony wastes, 
and rough uneven tracts, which are covered 
with low brushwood. Beyond the Punjaub, 
nearly environed by the western portion of 
the Himalayas, the beautiful valley of Cash- 
mere rivals the fairest realms in the world, 
and almost justifies all that fable has related, 
or poets sung, of its productiveness and 
beauty. 

Along the hanks of the Chumhul, Bunas, 
Betwah, and Keane, tributaries of the 
Jumna, there are picturesque spots; and on 
the south side of the Ganges, near the junc¬ 
tion of the Sive, there are specimens of low 
river landscape very attractive of their kind. 
The coast views of the peninsula are not 
attractive. On neither the east nor west 
ranges of shore are there many striking 
views; the ghauts are sometimes near enough 
to he picturesque, but there are few bold head¬ 
lands or jutting points to mark the coast-line on 
either side of Oape Comorin. On the west, com¬ 
monly called the coast of Malabar, there are 
Maundvee Point, Diu Head, Salsed Point, 
and Mount Delly. On the east, usually named 
the coast of Coromandel, there are Ramen 
Point, Calymere Point, and Point Palmyras. 
The Malabar territory does not extend along 
the entire western coast, although the name 
is given to the whole sea-board, leading the 
general reader frequently into this error. 
Short distances from that coast the country 
assumes a varied character. At first it is a low 
sandy plain, which extends for miles ; then oc¬ 
casional hillocks rise abruptly; these increase 
in number until the country becomes roughly 
undulated, the hillocks taking a ruder and 
bolder form, and, covered with dense jungle, 
at last connect themselves with the spurs of 
the Western Ghauts, which are clothed with 
the grandeur of native forests of teak and 
satin-wood. 

The ghaut scenery along the Coromandel 
coast is not dissimilar in character to that of 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


9 


Chap. I.] 

Malabar, but generally tbe line is low 7 and 
swampy, and tbe extensive space comprised 
in tbe delta of the Ganges is as dreary as tbe 
Sahara of Scinde. 

Tbe newly-acquired countries of Tenes- 
serim and Pegu, on the eastern shores of tbe 
Bay of Bengal, formerly portions of tbe 
Birman empire, do not possess much variety of 
general aspect. Near the coast they are low, 
level, and tedious to tbe eye, except in some 
particular spots; and tbe rivers flow through 
flats of sandy or alluvial country. In tbe 
interior tbe land rises, and good hill prospects 
are presented. 

On the whole, although India possesses 
some of the most glorious scenery in the 
world, it is very much indebted to the bold 
mountain confines upon the north and north¬ 
west, and the hill countries of the provinces 
in that direction, for its distinction in this 
particular. This is especially exemplified 
along the frontiers of Beloochistan and Aff- 
ghanistan, where the traveller finds almost 
every form of bold and wild prospect inter¬ 
spersed with cultivated and beautiful scenes. 
In the province of Peshawur—the Punjaub 
boundary of Affghanistan—the little retired 
valleys in the mountains are often very 
lovely; and as the province is watered by 
numerous streams, and by the Cabul River, 
which bursts from the Khyber Mountains at 
Michnee, there is irrigation and extensive 
culture in the plains, from the fertility of 
which the traveller cannot but regard with 
interest the bold and grotesque outlines of 
the mountains. Indeed, nearly all the land 
boundaries' of India are interesting to the 
lover of the picturesque; while in the Dec- 
can, and in Central India, there are many 
places to vie in beauty with the famous 
resorts of travellers in Europe. 

Of late years much attention has been 
paid to a more scientific acquaintance with 
India, its dependent territories, and its coasts. 
Nor are the laudable desires of the govern¬ 
ment to make itself acquainted with the area, 
soil, and facilities of the peninsula merely of 
recent origin: the Marquis of Wellesley, 
and the Duke of Wellington, displayed a 
strong desire for a thorough survey of the 
peninsula. This great work, which has pro¬ 
ceeded for more than half a century, not¬ 
withstanding all the vicissitudes of Indian 
history during that period, is an honour to 
the East India Company. Under the aus¬ 
pices of Lord Metcalfe, Sir A. Burns, with 
a suitable staff, while ostensibly on a mission 
to Runjeet Singh, effected a survey of the 
Indus, and drew up a report of its navigable 
capacities. 

Dr. Buist, and other scientific gentlemen, 

VOL. i. 


have enlarged the public knowledge of the 
geology of the peninsula. The transactions 
of the Bombay Geographical Society, and of 
the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of 
India, have brought to light a multitude 
of facts important to the government and to 
commerce, as well as most interesting to the 
scientific world. The talented editor of the 
Bombay Times has contributed very valuable 
acquisitions on the meteorological phenomena 
of India, the result of many years’ observa¬ 
tion. The editor, also, of the Bombay Gazette 
has, by his papers on economical science, 
benefited commerce. The survey of the 
Malabar coast, by Lieutenant Selby, has 
proved of utility in many respects not con¬ 
templated in the objects held in view in 
directing the survey. 

For governmental, military, and commer¬ 
cial purposes India has been much investi¬ 
gated of late years; while geologists, agri¬ 
culturists, horticulturists, botanists, zoologists, 
entymologists, &c., have taken their share in 
the work of inquiry. Nor has the population 
been left unstudied; the missionary, ethno¬ 
logist, philologist, and politician, have pursued 
with zeal the courses of research and study 
opened up to them. Still India must be 
much more explored for all these purposes, 
and by the light of all these sciences, before 
Great Britain can realise the full value of her 
Indian empire, or be thoroughly acquainted 
with its resources and its people. 

The geological characteristics of the coun¬ 
try, although tolerably well known, require 
considerable investigation. The mineral pro¬ 
ductions are varied, and found over a vast 
area. There are extensive beds of coal, both 
bituminous and anthracite. In the Punjaub 
large deposits of rock-salt, a very valuable 
commodity in India, have been discovered. 
Iron is much diffused. In the beds of the 
rivers precious stones of almost every variety 
are found, and diamonds in alluvial soil. 
One of the most useful products connected 
with the geology of India is kunken. This 
seems to have been extensively spread through 
India by the beneficent hand of the Great 
Architect of the universe, to compensate for 
the general deficiency in limestone fit for the 
kiln. The kunken contains upwards of 
seventy-two parts of carbonate of lime in its 
composition. It is usually mixed with the 
soil with little appearance of stratification. 
Except in the higher portions of the Nil- 
gherry Hills, it is to be met with everywhere 
throughout India. The natives burn it into 
lime, and also use it in blocks or masses for 
building tanks, huts, &c. Statuary marble, 
clay slate, and roofing blue slate, are seldom 
met with. Geologists describe the strata of the 

o 









10 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap, I. 


peninsula as affording peculiar phenomena. 
The superior strata of southern India are for 
the most part hypogene schists, broken up by 
vast upheavings of plutonic and trappean 
rocks. In the Eastern Ghauts they are 
capped by sandstone, limestone, and laterite ; 
in the Western Ghauts by laterite. They 
also form, with little deviation, the basis of 
the plains from Naggery to Cape Comorin. 
They are associated with granite in the hills 
which break over the valley of the Cavery, 
and north of the plain of the Cavery, in the 
table-lands of Mysore, Bellary, Hyderabad, 
and Southern Mahratta. Towards the north¬ 
west, from Nagpore to Rajapore, to the 
western coast, the hypogene and plutonic 
rocks cease under a vast sheet of trap, one of 
the largest extensions of that formation in the 
world. Gneiss is found lowest in the series; 
next to it mica and hornblende schist, actino- 
lite. chlorite, talcose, and argillaceous schist. 
This succession does not always prevail, as 
all of these have been found lying upon the 
granite. 

The fossiliferous remains of India are com¬ 
paratively scarce, and have not yet been suf¬ 
ficiently investigated, nor have the results of 
the investigations and classifications made, 
been given in a sufficiently popular form to 
the public. In the country between the 
Kistna and the Godavery, and in the South 
Mahratta country, sandstone and limestone 
rock appear. North of the Salem break, on 
the high table-land, they are found to a con¬ 
siderable extent, and in these the fossil remains 
are interesting. 

Shelly limestone beds of some extent are 
found at Pondicherry. In these there are 
beautiful fossil remains, which have afforded 
considerable discussion to the learned in this 
branch of science. 

The laterite is a formation which, if not 
peculiar to India, presents itself there to such 
an extent as to attract especial attention. 
According to Dr. Buist, in his papers on the 
geological characteristics of Bombay, this 
rock extends along the whole western coast 
from the sea to the base of the ghauts, from 
Cape Comorin to the north. It is not so 
continuous on the eastern coast, but is there 
also to be met with to a great extent; and on 
the summits of both ranges of ghauts it is 
discoverable. Everywhere in the Deccan it 
appears. Sandstone of the late tertiary is 
found on the south coast, extending to Ceylon 
by “ Adam’s Bridge,” which is composed 
of it. 

A sedimentary rock called begur, or black 
cotton clay, is supposed to cover nearly one- 
half of Southern India. It is peculiarly 
absorbent, and makes the most fertile soil in 


the world. It is spread over the great table¬ 
land of the Deccan, and is the source of its 
productiveness. No manure or fertiliser is re¬ 
quired where it is, and no efforts of cultivatior 
exhaust it. The late editor of the Ceylov. 
Examiner observes of the granite and it: 
congeneric rocks —“ They are abundantly 
developed throughout the hypogene area. 
The former shows itself under every variety 
of aspect. It starts up from the surface of 
the table-land in bold and sharply hewn 
peaks, or rises in dome-shaped bosses, or 
appears in profuse but distinct clusters and 
ranges, which affect no general line of eleva¬ 
tion, but often radiate irregularly as from a 
centre. Some of the insulated peaks are ex¬ 
ceedingly striking in outline and structure. 
The rock of Nundilrug, for instance, which 
rises 17,000 feet above the surface of the 
plain, looks almost as if it were formed of 
one entire mass of rock, and the rock of 
Sivagunga is still higher. The most remark¬ 
able of the insulated clusters and masses of 
granite on the table-land of the peninsula are 
those of Sivagunga, Severndroog, and Octra- 
droog; some in Mysore, Gooty, Reidrooj, 
Adoni; and others in the central districts. 
But there are numerous masses almost equally 
remarkable scattered over all the southern 
part of the peninsula table-land, as w T ell as in 
the maritime district of Coromandel. The 
greater part of the central table-land is also 
formed by it, and it crops out continually 
over an extended area in the more elevated 
districts.” 

In the reports of the meetings of the Bengal 
Asiatic Society there is voluminous informa¬ 
tion as to the volcanoes of India. Sir Charles 
Lyell and Mrs. Somerville had not examined 
these papers, or far more information would 
have been obtained by them on this interest¬ 
ing subject. In the Transactions of the 
Bombay Geographical Society the volcanic 
phenomena of the peninsula have been fre¬ 
quently made topics of inquiry and elucida¬ 
tion.- The press of India has also rendered 
good service on the subject, so that much 
has become known of late years as to the 
history of earthquakes and volcanoes in those 
lands. Papers on the connection between 
earthquakes, volcanoes, and meteorological 
phenomena, published in the reports of the 
Bombay Society, throw a light on the past 
and present condition of India and the adja¬ 
cent islands, as to their geological history 
and climate, which will repay the researches 
of all who desire to study these important 
and interesting regions. Mrs. Somerville, 
writing of the volcanoes in the Bay of Bengal, 
observes—“ One of the most active groups 
of volcanoes in the world begins with the 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


11 


Chap, I.] 

Banda group of islands, and extends through 
the Sunda group of Timor, Sumbawa, Bali, 
Java, and Sumatra, separated only by narrow 
channels, and altogether forming a gently 
curved line of 2000 miles long; hut as the 
volcanic zone is continued through Barren 
Island and Narcandam, in the Bay of Bengal, 
and northward along the whole coast of Arra- 
can, the whole length of the volcanic range is 
a great deal more.” The band extends beyond 
Arracan, northward, to Chittagong, latitude 
22°, or 600 miles beyond Barren Island. 
The volcanic fires are active chiefly during 
the south-west monsoon. About the middle 
of the last century, which has been said 
to he the great epoch of earthquakes all 
over the world, volcanic islands were cast up 
in the Bay of Bengal; and rocks and shoals, 
which disappeared again, remained there so 
long, that they were entered on the charts. 
At Calcutta an earthquake took place in the 
year 1737, by which 20,000 vessels of various 
descriptions were sunk, and 30,000 lives lost. 
Violent eruptions of this or greater magnitude 
seem to have been of frequent occurrence 
in India and the neighbouring countries. Dr. 
Thompson, in a paper on the geology of 
Bombay, published in the Madras Literary 
Transactions, relates—“The island of Vaypi, 
on the north side of Cochin, rose from out 
the sea in the year 1344: the date of its 
appearance is determined by its having given 
rise to a new era among the Hindoos, called 
Puduvepa, or the new introduction. Con¬ 
temporary with the appearance of Vaypi, the 
waters which, during the rainy season, were 
discharged from the ghaut, broke through the 
banks of the channel which usually confined 
them, overwhelmed a village, and formed a 
lake and harbour so spacious, that light ships 
could anchor where dry land had previously 
prevailed.” 

During the earthquake of 1672 sixty square 
miles of the lowlands along the shores of 
Arracan were laid under water. One of the 
Neug Mountains entirely disappeared; an¬ 
other remained only with its former peak 
visible. A very high mountain sunk to the 
level of the plain; several fell, blocking up 
the course of rivers. Between May, 1834, 
and May, 1835, no less than twelve earth¬ 
quakes occurred in Assam. Colonel Connoley 
affirms that the region of recent volcanic 
action terminates with the delta of the 
Ganges; but there are evidences across the 
whole country to show that at periods not 
remote these regions were shaken by subter¬ 
ranean concussions. Dr. Falconer affirms of 
Cashmere that a singular field of fire exists 
there of considerable dimensions; the soil is 
completely burnt, and in some places vitrified. 


The igneous action of this locality has con¬ 
tinued for more than 200 years. Extraordi¬ 
nary irruptions of pestilential gas have of 
late years risen to the surface of the sea on 
various parts of the coasts. Within two days 
sail of the port of Kurrachee, a group of mud 
volcanoes appears within 100 yards of the 
sea; these stretch far inland. Captain Ro¬ 
bertson described the whole district, for an 
area of 1000 square miles, as covered with 
mud cones, either active or quiescent. Brim¬ 
stone, in large quantities, is found in the 
neighbourhood, and one considerable hill is 
called the Sulphur Mountain. Captain Vicary, 
in his account of the geology of Scinde, de¬ 
scribes the course of the Indus as directed 
extensively through country of volcanic origin, 
where hot wells abound, to the surface of which 
sulphuretted hydrogen constantly ascends, 
tainting large districts with its odour. 

The opinion is very prevalent that great 
and opulent cities have been buried by earth¬ 
quakes or volcanic eruptions in Central India. 
Sir John Malcolm, and the scientific gentle¬ 
men who accompanied him in his expedition 
to Central India, have chiefly given currency 
to these opinions ; but they seem to have 
relied too much on the traditionary tales of 
the natives. Lyell, in his Principles of Geo¬ 
logy, adopts these representations, and so 
treats the evidence supplied, as to ensure 
the general acceptance of the theory. He 
ascribes the destruction of the two mighty 
cities of Oujein and Mhysir to this cause. 
Subsequent investigations lead to a different 
conclusion; and although there are signs of 
violent volcanic action in the vicinity, the 
ruined cities, in all probability, sank into 
decay from other causes. It is, however, 
true that Central India, within the period of 
history, has suffered signally from violent 
operations of nature. 

The climate of India is supposed to be well 
known, yet, like everything else connected 
with the peninsula, it has been too little 
studied, and no adequate advantage has been 
taken of the facts ascertained. It is generally 
regarded in England as a country almost 
unendurably hot, with situations somewhat 
cooler on the higher lands, but, on the whole, 
an unhealthy and uncomfortable land to live 
in. India, being situated in or near the tro¬ 
pics, is of course hot. The lowlands of the 
Madras presidency to the south experience 
the greatest heat, the thermometer standing 
100 degrees in the shade, and 120 in the sun, 
at certain seasons. On the lowlands of the 
north-west, where the soil is generally dry 
and sandy, although situated beyond the tro¬ 
pics, the heat is also very great. On the 
high table-land of the Deccan the heat is not 






12 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. L 


so intense, and in the hilly regions water 
freezes in the winter—only a thin ice, however, 
covers it; whilst high up in the Himalayas, 
everlasting glaciers and never-ceasing accu¬ 
mulations of snow are to be seen. There are 
various parts of Northern and North-western. 
India which are well inhabited, where the 
elevation is considerable, in which, during the 
short winter, the thermometer is below the 
freezing-point. The year, however, is every¬ 
where divided by the wet and dry seasons. 
During the former, torrents of rain fall over 
the country, laying it under water; the great 
rivers, swollen into broad floods, overflow the 
country, and all operations, civil or military, 
are nearly suspended. Some seasons are 
remarkable for these inundations, inflicting 
wide-spread damage. During the pursuit of 
the Sikh army by Sir Walter Gilbert, at the 
close of the last war in the Punjaub, this was 
the case, the pursuers having been seriously 
checked in their enterprise from this cause. 
During the rainy season the celebrated city 
of Mooltan, which had been so gallantly de¬ 
fended by Moolraj, and which seemed of such 
stupendous strength as to defy all the art of 
war, was swept away by the inundation, 
which, rushing along the river, rose around it. 

In July and August, 1851, the rains were 
so heavy in Scinde, that a vast amount of 
injury was inflicted upon the cultivators ; and 
the subsequent decomposition of vegetable 
matter spread disease over considerable areas 
of otherwise healthy country. In some of 
the towns lying low, near the Indus, where 
the people were accustomed to dig holes in 
the earth, over which they raised their habi¬ 
tations, the deluge caused fearful havoc by 
the sickness it bred. In 1852 Mr Frere, the 
commissioner of Scinde, obtained papers from 
the assistant commissioner and collectors of 
the Kurrachee collectorate, concerning this 
disaster. The districts of Leman were repre¬ 
sented as almost entirely overwhelmed by 
the torrents from the hills, the overflowing 
of the Indus, and the inter-current Narra. 
The whole country appeared, long after the 
overflow and when it had in a great measure 
subsided, as a vast lake, surrounded by an ex¬ 
tensive swamp; the villages and high grounds 
were like so many islands. Between the 18th 
and 29th of July, the fall of rain and the rush¬ 
ing floods from the high lands were incon¬ 
ceivably great. By the 28th the pheno¬ 
menon reached its climax. On that day the 
inhabitants exclaimed, “ The clouds of heaven 
were broken, and fell.” This torrent from 
above was accompanied by vivid and inces¬ 
sant flashes of lightning, while thunders roared 
among the adjacent hills, as if the earth were 
in agony, and found utterance for its woes. 


About midnight the hubbub of the elements 
was hushed, but then the torrents burst from 
the mountains, flooding the highest inhabited 
grounds four feet in depth, and carrying, by 
a resistless impetus, habitations, cattle, trees, 
and whatever was in its course, along with it. 
In the Pergunnah Mullar alone, thirty-nine 
villages, with their surrounding cultivation, 
were destroyed: supposing the like propor¬ 
tion in other districts, a picture of ruin is 
presented truly appalling. The roads were 
rendered impassable for camels throughout 
the whole collectorate. Kurrachee itself was 
damaged, although the river Learee, which 
runs into its harbour, is but a little mountain 
torrent. Central and Lower Scinde suffered 
more than otherwise would have been the 
case, from the construction of the houses, and 
the material of which they were built. 

The autumnal moisture of the air is com¬ 
plained of very much by European inhabi¬ 
tants of India, even in the higher regions. 
At the latter end of June, although the sun 
is not hotter than in the two previous months, 
there is little motion in the air, and but little 
evaporation from the body. During the hot 
winds which precede the moist season, Euro¬ 
peans suffer from the heat; but the air being 
dry, they do not experience the inconve¬ 
nience which ensues when it is saturated with 
moisture in the latter end of June and in July. 
Indeed, in many places, that period is more 
trying to health than during or after the rains, 
notwithstanding the evaporation which arises 
from so great an area of flooded surface. 

At Hyderabad the rainy season is not un¬ 
healthy. The city is not surrounded by much 
cultivation, nor by any great growth of jungle, 
and is itself situated on the crest of a lime¬ 
stone range, so that when the rains fall, they 
are speedily absorbed, the surplus passing 
into the nullah from the Fullallee. Other 
cities are as favourably situated as this, which, 
for illustration sake, is particularised; but 
generally the moist, as well as the wet sea¬ 
sons, are more unhealthy to Europeans than 
the hot season. Of late years pluviometers 
have been very generally kept by the com¬ 
missioners, collectors, and their assistants, by 
missionaries, merchants, and other Europeans; 
and the laws by which this class of pheno¬ 
mena are regulated have been observed, and 
no doubt practical benefit will result, not only 
to cultivation, but to the health, at all events, 
of British residents. 

A distinguishing characteristic of the climate 
is the monsoons—winds which blow north¬ 
east and south-west, each for six months in 
the year, and regularly succeed each other. 
The north-east monsoon begins about the 
close of October, in fitful squalls: these occur 



Chap. I.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


13 


until the end of November, when the mon¬ 
soon regularly sets in, and continues until 
the beginning of April. The advent of this 
wind upon the Coromandel coast is accom¬ 
panied by rain. Soon after the north-east 
monsoon ceases, that from the south-west 
begins. Its advent is attended by rain upon 
the Malabar coast, which prevails some dis¬ 
tance southward, the clouds breaking upon 
the Western Ghauts. Heavy rains fall with 
the- monsoon on the Gangetic valley, sweeping 
with the wind up the Bay of Bengal from the 
Indian Ocean, until arrested by the moun¬ 
tains of Thibet. 

India and the coasts of the peninsula have, 
from time immemorial, been ravaged by storms 
so furious, and of such frequent recurrence, 
as to be characteristic of the climate. In the 
Bay of Bengal and the China Seas north of 
the line, and the seas around the Mauritius, 
and towards the Cape, hurricanes are fre¬ 
quent, as is well known to the general reader. 
It is remarkable that north of Ceylon, on the 
Malabar coast, or in the Arabian Sea, such 
hurricanes are comparatively seldom felt. Dr. 
Buist, of Bombay, who devoted extraordinary 
attention to this subject, expresses the opinion 
that while in the Bay of Bengal and the other 
seas mentioned as subject to hurricanes, or 
cyclones, as this description of atmospheric 
disturbance is scientifically called, they make 
their appearance about once a year: in the 
Arabian Sea they are not felt more than once 
in ten years. This statement hardly agrees 
with a careful observation of the existing lists 
of general atmospheric disturbances of this 
nature, and of those by which the western 
coasts of India have been especially affected, 
through a very considerable number of years. 
Lists collected by the industry of Dr. Buist 
himself do not seem to bear out the as¬ 
sertion. 

From 1830 to 1854 sixty-one hurricanes 
occurred in the Bay of Bengal, and as far 
eastward as Canton, many of them raging 
over a larger space. The months in which 
they occurred most frequently were October, 
November, and June. In the first-named 
month there were twelve, and in each of the 
others nine. September ranks next in the 
scale, there being eight occurrences of the 
kind in that month. April, August, and 
December, each are numbered five. Four 
are supposed to have taken place in July, 
two in June, and one in March. January 
and February were exempt. The greatest 
number of these visitations happening in any 
one year was six, which was only in the year 
1842. Several years were altogether free 
from them, as 1830, 1834, 1838, 1843, 1844. 

The following list of storms occurring on 


the land and seas of the peninsula during a 
century, drawn from the same statistical col¬ 
lections, will interest the reader, and afford 
material for a judgment as to the climate of 
India in this particular :— 

1746.—Violent storm at Madras, by which a French 
fleet of war was driven out of the roads, and wrecked. 
At Pondicherry the tempest was not felt. 

1774. April 6.—Coromandel visited by a hurricane. 

Three British ships of war lost, many men perishing. 
1780. July. —A typhon in the Chinese Seas, by which 
100,000 persons are supposed to have perished. 

1782. April. —In the Gulf of Cambay, accompanied by a 
dreadful inundation. 

1783. November 3-7-—Violent hurricane from Jelli- 
cherry north to Bombay: great loss of shipping 
and lives—proving fatal to almost every ship within 
it3 reach. 

1787. May 19.—In the upper part of the Bay of Bengal, 
inundation at Coringa; sea rose nearly fifteen feet; 
20,000 people and 500,000 cattle supposed to have 
perished. 

1789. —In the north-west part of the Bay of Bengal; 
three enormous waves, following in slow succession, 
deluged Coringa, the third of them sweeping every¬ 
thing before it. 

1790. —In the China Seas. 

1792. October 26, 27.—Madras. 

1797. June 18-20—Madras. 

1799. November 3-7.—Frightful hurricane from Calicut 
north; her majesty’s ship Resolution, with about one 
hundred small craft, and 400 lives, lost in Bombay 
Harbour. 

1800. October 19.—Furious hurricane and earthquake at 
Ougele, and so round by Masulipatam. 

1800. October 28.—Hurricane at Coringa and Masuli- 
patam. 

1803. September 20-28.—China Seas, 20 N., 117 E. 
1805. January 7.—Trincomalee, Coromandel coast, and 
so across to Jellicherry, on the Malabar coast. 

1805. March 16.—Calcutta and Lower Bengal. 

1807. June 24.—Furious hurricane off Mangalore. 

1807. December 10.—Madras. 

1808. December 12.—Madras and southern Coromandel 
coast; great loss of life aud shipping. 

1808. November. —The London, Nelson, Experiment, 
and Glory, East Indiamen, parted from the fleet, and 
never more heard of; supposed to have gone down 
in a hurricane, and all hands perished. 

1809. March. — Duchess of Gordon, Calcutta, Bengal, 
and Lady Jane Dundas, parted from the fleet in a 
hurricane, and supposed to have foundered; all hands 
perished. 

1809. March 28-30.—China Seas. 

1810. September 20-30.—China Seas, 17 N., 115 E. 

1811. April SO .— Madras: destroyed nearly every vessel 
in the roads; niuety native vessels wrecked at their 
anchors; the Dover frigate, and the store-ship Man¬ 
chester, run ashore, aud were wrecked. 

1812. September 8-10.—China Seas, 16 N., 114 E. 

1816. July 10.—Singapore; 200 lives lost. 

1816.—Malacca: thirty houses blown into the sea; thirty 
or forty vessels lost, and at least 400 people drowned. 

1818. October 23, 24.—Madras: severe revolving gale. 

1818. October 24.—Madras: centre passed right over 
the town; fearfully destructive. 

1819. —Mauritius (no particulars): rain fell for thirty 
hours continuously, and swamped the whole country. 

1819. September 25.—Cutch aud Kattiwar: lasted a day 
and two nights. 

1819. October 28, 29.—China Seas, 89 N., 119 E. 

1820. March 29, 30.—Madras. 





14 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE [Chap. I. 


1820. May 8.—Madras : two square-rigged vessels 
wrecked, and an immense quantity of native craft: 
stretched across to the Arabian Sea, and occasioned 
some loss of shipping southward of Bombay. 

1820. November 29.—China Seas, 12 N., 109 E. 

1820. December 2.—Madras, Pondicherry, and Coro¬ 
mandel coast. 

1821. October. —China Seas. 

1822. June. —Mouth of the Ganges and Berhamputra: 
storm travelled at the rate of about two miles an hour 
—fifty-three miles in twenty-four hours: 50,000 
people perished in the inundation. 

1822. September 14, 15.—China Seas, 20 N., 114 E. 

1823. June 2.—Chittagong and delta of the Ganges. 

1823. May 26.—Violent hurricane in the Bay of Bengal: 
six large English ships wrecked’. 

1824. February. —The Mauritius: very severe. Her 
majesty’s ship Delight, with 120 slaves, wrecked. 

1824. June 8.—Chittagong: heavy inundations. 

1826. September 27.—China Seas. 

1827. October 26, 27-—China Seas, 9 N., 118 E. 

1827. December 20.—Bombay. 

1828. December. —Mauritius. 

1829. August 8.—China Seas, 18 N., 14 E. 

1830. March 27 and April 3.—Bourbon; did not reach 
the Mauritius. 

1831. September 23.—China Seas. 

1831. October 22,23.—Manilla: 4000 houses destroyed. 
Barometer fell from 29 90 to 28'70. 

1831. October 31.—Lower Bengal: inundations swept 
away 300 villages, and at least 11,000 people; famine 
followed, and the loss of life is estimated at 50,000. 

1831. December 6.—Pondicherry and Cuddalore: of few 
hours’ duration only, but fearfully destructive. 

1832. May 21.—Delta of the Ganges: eight to ten thou¬ 
sand people drowned. 

1832. August 3.—China Seas. 

1832. Augusts. —Furious hurricane at Calcutta; baro¬ 
meter 28'8. 

1832. September 23.—Macao, China: 100 fishing-boats 
lost; of cotton alone 1405 bales picked up. 

1832. October 8.—Furious storm and disastrous inunda¬ 
tion at and around Calcutta; great sufferings in con¬ 
sequence at Balasore. Barometer fell from 29‘70 to 
27'80 in sixteen hours. 

1832. October 22 and November 8.—China Seas. 

1833. May 21.—Tremendous hurricane off the mouth of 
the Hoogly. Barometer fell from 29’090 at 8 a.m., 
to 26'5 at noon. 

1833. August 26-29.— China Seas, 22 N., 113 E. 

1833. October 12-14.—China Seas, 16 N., 117 E. 

1833. November 29, 30.—Ceylon: violent fall of rain, 
and disastrous river inundation. 

1835. August 6-8.—China Seas. 

1836. July 31.—China Seas: £250,000 lost by ship¬ 
wreck. 

1836. October SO. —Madras: did enormous mischief on 
shore. Barometer sunk to 27'3. Centre passed over 
the town. 

1837. June 15.—A tremendous hurricane swept over 
Bombay: an immense destruction of property, and 
loss of shipping in the harbour, estimated at nine and 
a half lacs (£90,000); upwards of 400 native houses 
destroyed. 

1837. November 16-22.—China Seas, 15 N., 116 E. 

1839. June. —In the Bay of Bengal, and off Coringa. 

1839. November. —Off Coringa and Madras: a storm- 
wave lays the shore eight feet under water; seventy 
vessels and 700 people lost at sea; 6000 said to have 
been drowned on shore. 

1839. October 7-10.—China Seas. 

1840. November 28-30.—China Seas. 

1840. April 27 and May 1.—Violent in the Bay of 
Bengal. 


1840. May. —Hurricane off Madras and the southern 
coast. 

1840. September 24-27.—In the China Sea, in which 
the Golconda, with a detachment of the 37th Madras 
native infantry, 200 strong, on board, is supposed to 
have, been lost. 

1841. May 16.—Madras: great loss of shipping. 

1842. September. —China Seas. 

1842. May. —Dreadful storm prevailed in Calcutta on 
the 3rd and 4th, by which every ship, boat, and 
house, was more or less injured. 

1842. June 1-3.—A frightful hurricane visits Calcutta, 
injuring almost every vessel in the river, and house in 
the town and neighbourhood. The barometer attains 
the unprecedented depression of 28‘278. 

1842. October 5, 6.—Hurricanes between Cuttack and 
Pooree. 

1842. October 22.—Severe hurricane over Madras, and 
across the Arabian Sea as far as Aden. 

1842. November 1.—In the Arabian Sea. 

1843. April 20.—Hurricane at the Mauritius: nine 
vessels driven into Port Louis, more or less injured. 

1845. February 22-27.—Violent hurricanes at the Mau¬ 
ritius. 

1845. November 27-28.—Two hurricanes in the China 
Seas occurred to the north and south of the line, 
almost simultaneously, 13° apart. 

1845. —Bay of Bengal. 

1846. November 25-26.—Violent hurricane at Madras, 
and so across to Mangalore and Cochin. 

1847. April 19.—Terrific hurricane from the line north 
to Scinde, in which the East India Company’s ship 
Cleopatra is lost, with 150 souls on board. The 
Maidive Islands submerged, and severe want and 
general famine ensues. 

1848. April 23.—Violent hurricane off Ceylon, in which 
her majesty’s brig Jumna , from Bombay, where she 
had been built, was nearly lost; she had an obelisk, 
and other valuable Assyrian marbles, on board. 

1848. September 12-14.—Violent hurricanes in the Bay 
of Bengal. 

1849. July 22-26.—A violent storm and rain burst 
all over India; a hurricane swept the Jullundhur, 
carrying everything before it. The barracks of her 
majesty’s 32nd regiment, at Meerut, and those at 
Ghazeepore, were destroyed. On the 25th ten inches 
of rain fell at Bombay, and in the course of four days 
twenty-six inches fell at Phoonda Ghaut, and forty 
inches at Mahableshwar (?). 

1849. December 10.—Severe hurricane at Madras: the 
ships Lady Sale, Industry, and Princess Royal, lost. 

1850. December 4.—Hurricane at Madras; two European 
ships and eighteen country craft wrecked. 

1851. May 1.—A furious hurricane raged off Ceylon : a 
second prevailed at Madras on the 6th, sweeping across 
the peninsula, and sending up a tremendous swell 
towards Scinde. The ship Charles Forbes, of Bombay, 
lost in the Straits of Malacca. 

1851. October 20.—The hurricane that visited Calcutta 
and its neighbourhood on the 22nd and 23rd of Oc¬ 
tober did great, damage to the shipping off Diamond 
Harbour and below Saugor. Two vessels, the Ben¬ 
galee, outward bound, and the Scourfield, inward 
bound, were wrecked—the former on Sangor Island, 
and the latter near Buit Palmyras; crews of both 
vessels saved. 

1852. May 14.—A terrific hurricane burst over Calcutta. 
Barometer 29'362: more severe than any that had 
been experienced since the 3rd of June, 1842, when 
the barometer sunk to 28 278, the lowest ever known 
in Calcutta, and almost every vessel in the river, and 
dwelling-house on shore, was more or less injured. 
During the gale there were destroyed in Calcutta 
2657 thatched and 526 tiled houses, with forty sub- 




Chap. I.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


15 


stantial buildings; eleven persons were killed, and 
two wounded. On the 8th of August, 1842, the 
barometer at Calcutta fell, during a hurricane, to 
28-800. 

1852. May 17.—A severe gale experienced at the Cape; 
barometer fell to 29'42 (60° Fahr.), the lowest known 
since the 21st of April 1848, when, without any 
change in the weather being experienced, it sunk 
to 29‘38, the lowest on record at Capetown. 

1852. December 16.—Very violent at Macao—scarcely 
felt at Hong-Kong—from Canton all along the north 
coast of China. 

1853. March 26-28.—Furious hurricane all over South¬ 
ern India: some fifty vessels sunk or wrecked on the 
Coromandel coast to the southward of Madras. 

1853. October 10.—Hurricane in the China Seas: large 
steamer dismasted, and narrowly escaped shipwreck, 
betwixt Hong-Kong and Singapore. 

1854. April 10-12.—A tornado swept Lower Bengal, 
from W.S.W. to E.N.E., sweeping villages and great 
trees before it, and destroying, it is said, 300 people. 

1854. April 21-23.—A violent hurricane at Rangoon; 
twenty-five boats, with the head-quarters of the 
30th regiment of .Madras native infantry, wrecked 
in the Irrawady; the barracks on shore unroofed. 
1854. May 22-24.—Hurricane in the China Seas; the 
Peninsula and Oriental Company’s steamer Douro 
lost her funnel, and was driven ashore a wreck 
1854. September 27.—A severe hurricane in the China 
Seas, 19 N., and 117 E. 

1854. October 6.—Hurricane south of Ceylon. 

1854. November 2.—Hurricane at Bombay; a thousand 
human beings and half a million-worth of property 
supposed to have perished in four hours’ time. 

The occurrence of hail-storms in India is 
frequent, and they are on so vast a scale as 
to be a characteristic of the climate. From 
the knowledge possessed concerning the great 
heat of that country, few general readers 
would imagine that it was a land remarkable 
for such phenomena; indeed, writers on 
meteorology and physical geography have 
frequently represented such storms as seldom 
occurring within the tropics. Dr. Thompson, 
in his work on meteorology, published in 
1849, makes that assertion. Mrs. Somerville, 
writing in 1851, says—“ Hail is very rare on 
the tropical plains, and often altogether un¬ 
known, though it frequently falls at heights 
of 1700 or 1800 feet above them.” The 
same gifted lady observes—“ It occurs more 
frequently in countries at a little distance 
from mountains than in those close to them 
or further off.” Mr. Milner, in his Universal 
Geography, lately published, is more accu¬ 
rate, but he also asserts that hail seldom falls 
in the tropics at the level of the sea. In India 
facts contradict these doctrines. In the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Calcutta, and along the western 
shores of the Bay of Bengal, hail-storms are 
of frequent occurrence. Colonel Sykes, in a 
paper read before the British Association for 
the Promotion of Science, established this, 
and other writers have confirmed his asser¬ 
tions. The colonel, however, erred in sup¬ 
posing that on the same line upon the coast 


of Malabar it also occurred, whereas hail 
seldom falls there, although frequent on the 
shores of Cutch and Scinde. The colonel’s 
statement, as appears in the society’s reports 
for 1851, is, that the phenomenon is not seen 
south of latitude 20°. This is true of the 
western coast of the peninsula, but not of the 
eastern. Dr. Buist has shown that in 1852 
a violent storm of hail fell at Pondicherry, 
south of Madras; and he affirms that others 
were recollected by him on the south-eastern 
shores of the peninsula. In Ceylon hail¬ 
storms are well known both in the higher 
and lower grounds. The occurrence of such 
storms in contiguity with the mountainous 
region of that island, and with various parts 
of the Himalaya range, confute the theory of 
Mrs. Somerville and other modern writers on 
such subjects, that hail seldom falls close to 
mountains. On several occasions, within a 
few years, hail-stones of enormous size, and 
immense masses of ice, have fallen both in 
the high lands and on the sea-shore, on the 
table-land of the Deccan, and at the foot of 
the mountain ranges. In April of 1855 a 
hail-storm did much damage to Lahore ; and 
in May of the same year there were terrific 
hail-showers at Patna, Nynee Tal, and 
various other places at great distances from 
one another. It would appear that in April, 
just before the time of greatest heat, the 
peninsula is visited most frequently by falls 
of hail. The statement which has sometimes 
been made, that May was the month most 
noted for this phenomenon, is an error. 
March stands next to April, and February 
to March in this particular. May is con¬ 
siderably beneath March, but much above 
every other month, except February, in the 
computation. 

Europeans chiefly object to the climate of 
India on account of the great heat. The 
hottest parts of India are not the most debi¬ 
litating. The low moist land on the northern 
portions of the eastern coast, and the marshy 
plains near the foot of the Himalayas, are 
more unhealthy than the southern portions 
of the peninsula. Exposure to the sun, pro¬ 
vided the head be well turban ed to protect it 
from sun-stroke, is not dangerous nor un¬ 
healthy. Experiments have been made in 
connection with the marching of European 
troops in time of peace, and it was proved 
that more men were lost by night-marches 
than by those conducted with suitable care 
during the hottest portion of the day. In 
the disastrous conflicts of 1857, between the 
mutineers of the Bengal army and the go¬ 
vernment forces, similar results were expe¬ 
rienced. General Havelock, in his marches 
and counter-marches during his efforts to 








16 


HISTORY OP THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. I. 


relieve Cawnpore and Lucknow, declared that, 
so far as exposure to the weather was concerned, 
his men suffered no injury. General Wilson, 
during his command of the forces before 
Delhi, reported that the troops had better 
health than in cantonments. When these 
operations commenced, the fiercest portion of 
the hot season had passed, hut the heat was 
still intense. The habits indulged by Euro¬ 
peans, rather than the climate, have hitherto 
made India sickly ; although, of course, some 
situations are exposed to miasmatic influ¬ 
ences, and certain portions of the year must 
be always trying to the health of natives of 
our high latitude. As the climate is more 
studied, and facts connected with this subject 
are more carefully weighed, Europeans will 
be enabled to encounter the heat by such 
sanitary and personal arrangements as those 
experiences will dictate, and India will be¬ 
come a sphere of enterprise more generally 
acceptable to the British people. The range 
of temperature is so great, and the climate 
so varied, notwithstanding its general tropical 
character, that there is abundant scope for 
the settlement and the energies of Europeans. 
The territory of British India is marked by 
a great variety of geographical features, and 
extends through twenty-three degrees of 
latitude, these are circumstances which must 
render many places practicable for the health¬ 
ful settlement of Englishmen. 

Local peculiarities so affect the prevailing 
winds, as also to conduce to the same result. 
The south-west monsoon, which in May is 
felt at Malabar, does not travel to Delhi until 
a month after, nor to the Sikh territory and 
the Affghan frontier until some weeks later, 
when its effects are comparatively mild. 
From October to April, six months of the 
year, the weather is cool enough for Euro¬ 
pean enjoyment; the remainder of the year 
is rendered unpleasant, and comparatively 
unhealthy, by the heat and rains. At Cal¬ 
cutta the thermometer stands at 66° in Janu¬ 
ary, and rises to 86° in April. At Bombay, 
on the other side of the peninsula, the climate 
is more various. At Madras the heat is less 
oppressive than in Bengal, although the tem¬ 
perature ranges higher; but the cool season 
is more refreshing in the latter than the 
former. The minimum in the city of Madras 
is 75°, the maximum 91°. The climate of 
the Blue Ghauts, especially in the neighbour¬ 
hood of the eanitorium, is esteemed as one of 
the most equable and delightful in the world, 
where it is never so cold as in England, and 
never so hot, the glass in summer ranging in 
London thirteen degrees higher than it does 
there. The rain-fall is much greater in the 
Blue Ghauts than in this country, but it 


happens at particular periods, refreshing the 
soil, and cooling the air, thus tending to 
render the district still more agreeable to 
Europeans, and affording many more fair 
days than are enjoyed in England. 

The diseases of the country are numerous. 
That which is chiefly dangerous, alike to 
Europeans and natives, is cholera. India 
has been generally supposed to be the birth¬ 
place of this pestilence, but there is reason to 
believe that its first incidence was in Persia. 
In India it first appeared in the Madras presi¬ 
dency, certainly not in the route from Persia, 
and may have had a separate origin there 
from similar causes. At its commencement it 
displayed its destructive energies, sweeping 
away multitudes of the natives, and many 
Europeans. Since then, three-quarters of a 
century, it has prevailed and sent forth 
its pestiferous influences along the great 
thoroughfares of the world, both by sea and 
land, to every country, at all events, within 
the bounds of civilisation. 

The natives are liable to peculiar disorders, 
under aggravated forms, such as leprosy, 
elephantiasis, smallpox, dysentery, fevers of 
various kinds, rheumatism, and a peculiar 
form of dropsy. Neither this complaint, nor 
elephantiasis, is ever communicated to Euro¬ 
peans ; and some of the fevers by which sad 
ravages are made upon the lives of the 
natives, are seldom taken by persons born 
in Europe, however long resident in this 
country. 

British residents suffer from intermittent and 
congestive fevers, rheumatism, apoplexy, sun¬ 
stroke, dysentery, diarrhoea, debility, and 
various diseases of the liver, enlargement 
and induration of that organ being very 
common. 

Peculiarities of climate, and their effects 
upon health in different regions, will receive 
additional notice as the great natural and 
political divisions of the country are more 
particularly described. 

The productions of India are, generally 
speaking, tropical, and in great variety arid 
luxuriance. 

Forests naturally claim first attention, as 
the most striking products of the soil in 
almost every country. Perhaps no land 
possesses timber in greater variety and 
beauty. The hardy oak, ash, and elm of 
our climate are not found there, nor are 
there any resemblances to the pine-forests 
of America; but the variety of kind, and 
diversity of adaptation, are greater than 
in either Europe or America. For the pur¬ 
poses of fuel, fences, hut constructions, and 
small articles of garden, stable, or household: 
uses, there is great abundance of wood of 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


17 


Chap. I.] 

many different species. For house-building 
and engineering work there is the saul-wood, 
which grows abundantly in Central and 
Northern India. This tree grows to a con¬ 
siderable height, and the dimensions of the 
trunk are often nine feet or more. The teak- 
tree wood is excellent for ship-building. It 
grows to the north of Madras, and in the Coro¬ 
mandel district. The Bombay government 
encourages the planting of this useful tree. 
It also flourishes in the provinces ceded by 
Birmah, where a revenue of £12,000 a year 
has been derived by government from licences 
to cut it. The tamarind, palm, and cedar, 
grow in profusion in some districts; black- 
wood is also abundant. 

There are many useful kinds of wood, and 
beautiful as well as useful, unknown to 
Europe, which the natives and European 
residents greatly prize. It is astonishing 
that these have not been made articles of 
commerce; for although the situations where 
they grow are remote, they could be brought 
to the principal ports by the rivers. Expor¬ 
tations of ebony, satin-wood, and a few other 
hard woods, susceptible of beautiful polish, 
are conveyed to England and America. 
There is much room for an enterprising 
commerce between England and India in 
these valuable commodities. 

The appearance of the timber growth of 
India i£ sometimes devoid of the picturesque : 
jungles, which harbour savage beasts and 
poisonous reptiles, stretch away over large 
spaces. In some cases the Indian forest is 
commanding, and the trees which are culti¬ 
vated for ornament are graceful in form and 
foliage, and afford a welcome shade from the 
torrid climate. 

Indian fruits are such as are best adapted 
to the inhabitants of a tropical country. 
The cocoa-nut is very fine, especially in 
Malabar. Melons, gourds, plantains, custard- 
apples, figs, guavas, jujubes, &c., abound in 
the more southern portions of the peninsula, 
and afford a grateful refreshment to the 
people who inhabit the sultry plains. In 
the more northern portions the fruits of 
Europe grow luxuriantly, grapes and peaches 
especially. Figs, pine-apples, and mangoes, 
also grow in rich abundance in the northern 
parts of Central India. In no country are 
these varieties of fruit more necessary, and 
Providence has provided India with an ex¬ 
tensive assortment adapted to the necessities 
and desires of her people. 

Her spices are also celebrated. Cinnamon 
is not of so fine a quality in Continental as 
in Insular India. Ginger, pepper, cloves, 
cassia, cardamums, and capsicums, are like¬ 
wise produced. 


Oils are among the important products of 
the country. Vegetable tallows and butters 
exude from trees and plants, and serve as 
food, or for manufacturing purposes. From 
the seed of the tallow-plant oil for lamps is 
extracted. Many other seeds, when ex¬ 
pressed, yield oils for commerce or domestic 
use. The oils of the poonja, cadja-apple, 
kossumba, poppy, poomseed, &c., are valu¬ 
able for various purposes. Many articles of 
this nature, peculiar to India, are produced 
within her territories. 

Wheat is grown in Northern India, where 
an increasing preference for it to rice is 
noticeable. In the south it is seldom seen, 
and the people prefer rice or pulse. Maize 
and millet are cultivated in many places 
where irrigation is obtainable. Rice is, 
however, the great staple of the Indians’ 
food; many subsist on it. Its cultivation is 
extensive, especially in the valley of the 
Ganges. The quality is not always good, 
but the produce is abundant. Sago, sago 
meal, cassava starch, arrowroot, and other 
starches, are produced in great quantities, 
and in fine perfection. 

The grasses of the peninsula are very 
numerous, and nourish large herds of sheep 
and goats; but there is no pasturage such as 
is to be found upon the undulated land¬ 
scapes of the British Isles, where a temperate 
climate and frequent showers produce per¬ 
petual verdure. 

Cattle are fed upon cotton and other seeds; 
coarse grain, peas or beans, are also used as 
fodder. New grasses have been introduced, 
and have flourished. 

There are many plants valuable as afford^ 
ing articles of commerce. Hemp, flax, aloe 
fibre, the fibres of the cocoa-nut, pine-apple, 
and plantain, are known to English traders, 
as also a few others; but there are many, 
of which no use is made in Britain, to which 
scientific men have called attention. 

The medicinal properties which are pos¬ 
sessed by certain vegetable products in 
India are important to the natives, and are 
also of commercial value. Senna, rhubarb, 
and castor-oil, are the most in demand by 
Europeans. 

Allied in some respects to the medicinal 
products are the gums of India, which are 
very numerous, and excellent in their respec¬ 
tive qualities. Arabic, olibanum, benjamin, 
mastic, shellac, and ammoniacum, are spe¬ 
cimens. Gamboge and asafcetida are ex¬ 
ported in large quantities. Caoutchouc (In¬ 
dian-rubber) and kattermando, the former for 
many years, the latter from a recent date, are 
in demand by the merchants of Europe and 
America. 


u 








18 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. I. 


Tobacco is grown in most parts of the 
country, from extreme north to south, but 
can hardly be pronounced good anywhere. 
The natives do not use it merely for its nar¬ 
cotic and soothing effects, but for various 
purposes. 

The dyes of India have a just as well as 
wide-spread celebrity. Indigo-planting has 
long been a profitable branch of cultivation, 
and many have grown rich in a short, time 
by that means. Indian madder is one of the 
most valuable commodities in the dye-works 
of Lancashire and Yorkshire. Turmeric, saf¬ 
flower, &c., are well known to Great Britain ; 
but in the native manufactures dyes of much 
6eauty are employed which are as yet un¬ 
known to English dyers. 

India is supposed to be very rich in barks. 
Various qualities, which have not been 
brought as yet into use, have been tested by 
scientific men, and recommended for medicinal 
or tanning purposes. 

Cotton grows in various parts of India, 
and of late .much inquiry has been made 
concerning the capabilities of the peninsula 
to meet the wants of the spinning-mills of 
England. Mr. George Hadfield, the inde¬ 
fatigable member for Sheffield, brought this 
subject under the attention of the House of 
Commons during the session of 1857, when 
the country was mourning over the tidings 
of blood and dishonour brought from the pro¬ 
vinces of the Bengal presidency, where revolt 
was raging. The discussion was so obviously 
inopportune, that no attention was given to 
it. Meetings were held in Manchester, the 
great capital of the cotton manufacture, but, 
for the same reasons, produced no public im¬ 
pression. Experiments, however, have been 
made, and sanguine expectations entertained, 
that India will yet yield a supply by which 
England may be rendered independent of 
the Southern States of the North American 
Union. Other fields of enterprise, such as 
Africa, have been also contemplated; and the 
Rev. Dr. Livingstone, a missionary of the 
London Missionary Society among the Bec- 
huanas, accomplished by skill and fortitude 
such an exploration of interior Africa as in¬ 
spires the hope that if India fail to meet the 
demands of the cotton manufacture for its 
staple, Africa may become the great cotton- 
field of the world. India, however, has not 
yet been made the subject of a fair and 
sufficiently extensive experiment. That the 
legislature will take up this great question, 
and conduct it to a satisfactory issue, there 
can be little doubt. Lancashire only requires 
that government remove the existing ob¬ 
stacles to private enterprise, and the doubt as 
to the cotton-growing capability of India will 


be eventually set at rest. In a work entitled 
the Culture of Cotton in India, the natives 
are represented as consuming 600,000,000lbs. 
weight annually, and that 90,000,000 lbs. are 
exported to England, with a like amount to 
China. The natives of all ranks are clothed 
with it; their light garments for the hot 
season, and their thicker garments for the 
cooler and for the rainy seasons, are all com¬ 
posed of cloth made from this material. 
Formerly the cotton growth of India was 
very great. The name calico, now univer¬ 
sally known, is Indian, the Portuguese hav¬ 
ing adopted it from Calicot, where they first 
found the cloth. The name muslin is also 
Eastern, derived from Moussul, where its 
manufacture was first known. 

The cotton of India is inferior to that of 
the United States; and the efforts made to 
improve its quality, by new methods of culti¬ 
vation, and by importing American seeds, 
have been but partially successful. The 
great difficulty appears, so far as the process 
of preparation is concerned, to be in the 
cleaning. Indian cotton is not sent from 
the plantation so clean picked and well 
packed as is American cotton. This arises 
partly from the methods of labour practised 
by the natives, from the fact that they are 
v T edded to their old customs, and from the 
damage sustained in sending it to the sea¬ 
board. It is necessary that the plantations 
should be near large navigable rivers or 
railroads, and possessed of a fine alluvial 
soil. The native cultivators complain of the 
operation of the land tenure, the want of 
capital, and the crushing effect of the usu- 
rious dealings of the native money-lenders. 
Under the most favourable circumstances, 
Indian cotton has seldom been produced of 
the length of fibre and cleanness of American 
cotton. 

The common cotton-plant of India is a 
triennial, and is found almost everywhere. 
There is a variety of it which is annual. 
The Dacca cotton is grown in the district of 
that name, in the Bengal presidency, and 
is finer and softer than the common plant. 
The Berar description is the best, but is 
neither so long nor so soft as the best cotton 
of America. These varieties require dif¬ 
ferent soils and treatment. 

It is alleged by Mr. Boyle, in his treatise 
on the subject, that the soil of the American 
plantations differs from that where good 
cotton is grown in India, chiefly in its peaty 
quality. This has also attracted the atten¬ 
tion of other persons conversant with the 
culture of cotton, who attribute the superiority 
rather to this circumstance of soil than to 
any peculiarity of climate. 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST, 


19 


Chap. I.] 

In another part of this work, more appro¬ 
priate for the full discussion of the subject, 
the practicability of making India a cotton - 
growing country, to such an extent and pro¬ 
ducing staple of such quality as will compete 
with the American plantations, will he con¬ 
sidered. It is here only necessary to add 
that the impediments to the production of 
good cotton in India are not merely such as 
soil or climate, or want of roads and canals. 
There are moral causes at work to create 
obstacles far more formidable. The ryots, or 
cultivators, are almost without enterprise; 
they are still more destitute of capital, and 
are obliged to obtain advances from native 
money-lenders, a class of men the most 
grasping, relentless, and unprincipled in the 
world. When good seeds have been imported 
from the United States, the native capitalists, 
under the pretence of a religious abhorrence 
of an innovation, have offered every opposi¬ 
tion to the use of them; and when the 
seeds have been sown, men have been hired 
to root them up, or otherwise damage the 
culture, so as to balk the experiment, and 
wear out the patience of the ryot, if his pre¬ 
judices were not sufficiently acted upon to 
make him abandon the attempt. 

The moral and social difficulties in the 
way of the successful cultivation of the supe¬ 
rior qualities of cotton may be best judged 
by observing how they are regarded from an 
American point of view. The following is 
from no unfriendly pen, but extracted from a 
memorial addressed to the Madras govern¬ 
ment by a gentleman well acquainted with 
the cotton culture of southern North Ame¬ 
rica and of British India :—“ The cotton is 
produced by the ryot. He is always in his 
banker’s books as deep, in proportion to his 
means, as his European master, and can do 
nothing without aid. The brokers, or cotton- 
cleaners, or gin-house men, are the middle¬ 
men between the chetty and the ryot. The 
chetties being monied men, make an advance 
to the broker. The broker is particular in 
classifying the seed-cotton, and pays for it 
according to cleanliness, and then he has 
much of the trash and rotten locks picked 
out, not to make the cotton better, but be¬ 
cause the rubbish chokes the churka, and 
prevents it from working. The good cotton 
is then separated from the seed, and the bad 
stuff which had been taken away from the 
good is beaten with a stone to loosen up the 
rotten fibre from the seed, and then it is 
passed through the churka. The good cotton 
and this bad stuff are both taken into a little 
room, six feet by six, which is entered by a 
low door, about eighteen inches by two feet, 
and a little hole as a ventilator is made 


through the outer wall. Two men then go 
in with a bundle of long smooth rods in each 
hand, and a cloth is tied over the mouth and 
nose; one man places his back so as to stop 
this little door completely, to prevent waste, 
and they both set to work to whip the cotton 
with their rods, to mix the good and bad to¬ 
gether so thoroughly, that a very tolerable 
article is turned out; even after all this be¬ 
devilling, if the people get a living price for 
it, they let it go as it is. But, as is usually 
the case, they are shaved so close, that they 
are driven to resort to another means of 
realising profit. They add a handful or 
two of seed to every bundle, and this is 
delivered to the chetties, and the chetties 
deliver it to their European agents, and the 
European agents save their exchange, and 
their object is gained. The cotton is taken 
by the manufacturer at a low price, because 
he knows not what he is buying.” 

The sugar-cane has been from the remotest 
times a product of India. When the English 
first visited the country, they found it there; 
and four hundred years before their advent 
reliable testimony was given to its abundance. 
The natives were unable to manufacture 
sugar from the cane, so as to send to market 
the crystalline product so valuable to com¬ 
merce ; their modes of expressing the juice 
were rude and wasteful, but they extracted 
large quantities from their cane-fields, and. 
very extensively used it in cakes, or with 
rice and other food. The English introduced 
the Jamaica system of culture with success, 
and of late years the East Indian sugars have 
lost much of their previous bad reputation, 
as compared with those of the West Indies. 
The great anti-slavery agitation in England 
brought East-India sugar into much more 
general use, and, as a consequence, stimu¬ 
lated the cultivation of the cane there, 
especially in Bengal, which is well adapted 
for it. While sugar-cane has been for so 
many ages a growth of the Indian soil, to 
the English may be attributed the great im¬ 
portance of this article in the present agricul¬ 
tural statistics of our eastern possessions. 

The tea-plant is in some places as well 
adapted to the climate of India as the sugar¬ 
cane. In China it is found to thrive best 
where the climate is most temperate ; but 
even in the warmest latitudes of that em¬ 
pire it is cultivated. At an early period it 
appeared to some of the servants of the East 
India Company that India was, in many of its 
northern and eastern districts, likely to prove 
suitable for the plant. It was not until the 
year 1884 that any attempt to introduce it 
was made—at all events on such a scale as to 
attract notice, although at least seven years 





20 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. I. 


previously the company’s botanists had pro¬ 
nounced the slopes of the Himalayas, not far 
from the Nepaul frontier, as well adapted for 
such an experiment. Some districts in the 
neighbourhood of Delhi, and in Assam, were 
pointed out by other scientific men as likely 
to prove suitable places. 

Under the auspices of Lord William Ben- 
tinck, deputations were sent to China, various 
specimens were obtained, a knowledge of the 
culture and subsequent manipulation was 
gleaned, and a nursery for 10,000 plants 
formed at Calcutta. The experiment pros¬ 
pered, and some of the specimens were sent 
to the Madras presidency, where the heat of 
the climate killed them; others were trans¬ 
planted in Bengal proper, hut their extreme 
delicacy demanded more attention than was 
conceded, and the experiments all failed. A 
portion was sent northward, to certain dis¬ 
tricts of the Himalayas. These were for the 
most part destroyed on the way, through the 
carelessness with which their transmission 
was conducted. Such as arrived at their 
destination throve, and in 1838 were in seed. 
The seeds were sown in situations for the 
most part judiciously chosen, and thus new 
nurseries were formed nearer to the region 
favourable for successful cultivation. 

During the progress of these measures it 
was discovered that the plant was indigenous 
to Assam, and several specimens gathered in 
a wild state were sent to Calcutta, and pro¬ 
nounced good by competent practical judges, 
as well as by the company’s botanists. Fur¬ 
ther researches were made, and it was found 
that in districts of Assam where the climate 
was most temperate, on the hill slopes, and 
along the undulations of the low country, 
near the rivers, the plant would flourish on 
many varieties of soil. The result was that 
plants of greater strength and size, more 
prolific and yielding tea of finer flavour than 
any imported from China, were produced. 
The East India Company, after incurring 
much expense in this enterprise, generously 
surrendered the cultivation to private enter¬ 
prise, and gave over to the Assam Tea Com¬ 
pany their nurseries, and their valuable con¬ 
tents. The crop in Assam has lately reached 
nearly 400,000 pounds, selling, as is well 
known, at a much higher price than the 
Chinese specimens. 

While the Assam experiment found so 
much public favour, attention to the Hima¬ 
laya gardens was not permitted to flag; high 
up on the slopes above Kumaon the plants 
multiplied rapidly, and yielded richly. A 
black tea, resembling souchong, but of supe¬ 
rior flavour, has thence reached England in 
increasing quantities. 


Since the conquest of the Sikh country, 
the tea plantations have been extended in that 
direction. The East India Company voted 
for some years a grant of £10,000 to nurture 
these experiments. 

In 1850 the company dispatched an agent 
to China to procure fresh seeds, skilful culti¬ 
vators, and to make himself well acquainted 
with the processes of cultivating and curing. 
The advantage of this mission, which was as 
successful as could be expected, has been 
very decided to the plantations of the north¬ 
west. 

At Cachar, Munneepore, and Darjeeling, 
the cultivation and manufacture of tea have 
been very successful. During the year 1855 
superior specimens were sent from these 
places to the Horticultural Society of India, 
which afforded great satisfaction and encou¬ 
ragement. It would appear that the tea-tree 
is indigenous also to the Cachar district, for 
natives who had been employed in Assam by 
the Assam Company, declared the wild speci¬ 
mens found in the one district, identical with 
those which had been found in the other.* 
Cachar is easy of access, a fine river opening 
up communication with it; and the tea-plant 
was found by Captain Yerner, the superin¬ 
tendent of Cachar, growing in luxuriance in 
the jungles. The most recent researches of 
that gentleman have led him to think that 
the Assam quality is different from the newly- 
discovered growth of Cachar, but Dr. Thomp¬ 
son, of the Honourable Company’s Botanical 
Gardens, at Calcutta, has pronounced them 
identical; the truth which reconciles these 
conflicting statements seems to be, that the 
last discoveries of the captain have been of 
another species, more resembling the green 
tea imported into this country from China. 
The Munneepore and Darjeeling specimens 
were pronounced by experienced “ tea- 
tasters” as of a good quality, and deserving 
culture. These were also found in wild 
luxuriance. 

In the report of the Agricultural Society 
of India, published last year, in Calcutta, 
further discoveries of the tea-plant are re¬ 
corded. At Sylhet, Mr. Glover, the officiat¬ 
ing collector, drew up a report to the com¬ 
missioners of revenue (Dacca), in which he 
gives minute details of the discovery of the 
plant growing extensively on the slope of 
small detached hills in various districts not 
remote from those where the previous dis¬ 
coveries had been made :—“ The greatest 
distance of the furthest discovered tea plan¬ 
tations from Sylhet does not exceed sixtv 
miles as the crow flies; by the only practic¬ 
able route it would probably be one hundred 
* Report of F. Skipvvith, Esq., judge at Sj lhet. 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


21 


Chap. I.] 

miles, but for three parts of this distance 
water-carriage would be available through¬ 
out the year, while in the rains, boats of large 
burthen could go up to the place. The tea- 
fields in Pergunnahs Punchkhund, Chapghat, 
and Ruffeeuuggur, are close to the rivers 
Soorna and Baglia, so that there would be 
no difficulty in the matter of carriage in any 
of these places.” * 

It must not be forgotten that, notwith¬ 
standing the tea-plant is indigenous to these 
regions, it requires cultivation and care. In¬ 
deed, this is the case with all the productions 
of India, and that from a cause which popu¬ 
larly might be supposed to render cultivation 
scarcely necessary. The soil, which is pro¬ 
lific in rich and useful productions, is also 
prolific in weeds, which encumber and choke 
the former, and the hand of the cultivator 
needs to be directed with especial care. The 
language of the poet is applicable to India in 
her indigenous and wild productions, as well 
as in her cultivated products:— 

“ Redundant growth 

Of vines, and maize, and bower and brake. 

Which Nature, kind to sloth, 

And scarce solicited by human toil. 

Pours from the riches of the teeming soil.” 

There can be little doubt that if railway 
enterprise open up the interior of India to 
the seaports and presidential capitals, the tea 
farms of Upper India and of Assam will 
become of great importance to England, and 
rapidly promote the wealth and civilisation 
of these regions. The tea plantations are 
picturesque, and the processes of growing, as 
practised both in Assam and in the opposite 
countries, towards Nepaul and the Punjaub, 
afford lively and interesting scenes of human 
occupation. 

Coffee has for a long time been grown by 
the natives in various districts, but the quality 
was so inferior as to find no European market. 
English planters have, however, succeeded in 
obtaining excellent berries. In the island of 
Ceylon coffee of a superior kind has been 
obtained from the plantations established by 
English settlers. The success of the experi¬ 
ments made there, induced extensive enter¬ 
prises of like kind to the south of the Western 
Ghauts, where the rich soil and warm climate 
favour the object. Good coffee is now pro¬ 
duced from these plantations, and from others 
in various parts of the country. 

Opium is cultivated to a vast extent under 
the immediate auspices of the company. The 
producers are natives, who grow it under the 
company’s licences, which are only extended 
to two districts, Patna and Benares,—the 

* Report of F. A. Glover, Esq., to the Agricultural 
Society of India. 


former producing the better quality, owing to 
some peculiarities in the soil and situation. The 
growers of the poppy are not allowed to sell 
the produce of their fields; they are merely 
the company’s farmers, to whom, at a fixed 
price, they must surrender what they grow. 
This is removed at certain seasons to Cal¬ 
cutta, where it is sold by auction at stated 
times to European or native merchants, who 
make it an article of export. Under the head 
of the commerce of India it will be necessary 
to return to this subject. 

The silkworm has long been bred in India, 
silk having been one of the oldest productions 
of the peninsula known to i;s ; its progress 
and extent will be more properly a subject for 
the heading of manufactures and commerce. 
It is here only necessary to say .that, in addi¬ 
tion to the mulberry, or China species of the 
worm, there are other species peculiar to the 
peninsula, especially in Assam, Bombay, and 
Madras. The mulberry worm is more com¬ 
mon in Bengal than elsewhere. 

The flora of India is such as might be 
expected from the general richness, yet widely 
extending variety, of her climates. The ferns 
of the peninsula have obtained great celebrity 
among botanists, as the largest and finest in 
the world. Near the smaller rivers and 
streams the country is spangled with these 
beautiful offspring of the soil. There also, 
and near the larger rivers, flowers of richest 
odour spring up in wonderful and glorious 
luxuriance. Along the slopes of the Nil- 
gherries, and the Eastern and Western 
Ghauts, the fair flowers of the mountain 
kiss every glittering rill, and spread their 
fragrance on the balmy air with which these 
regions are blessed. The Persian rose, pas¬ 
sion-flower, and Gloriosa sujperba, grow luxu¬ 
riantly in the wild jungles, as if the ruder 
and lovelier forms of nature were struggling 
for victory. Nowhere in the world are such 
specimens of the water-lily and the lotus 
found as along certain portions of the Ganges, 
the Indus, the Jhelum, the Godavery, and on 
the Lake of Wular, in the stormless valley of 
Cashmere. In the hills which form the 
northern limits of the Deccan, and among 
those which rise beyond the districts of 
Delhi and the Punjaub, rhododendrons, and 
other shrubs of that species, grow to perfec¬ 
tion. In many places on the mountain 
slopes, and in sheltered valleys, wherever 
springs are near with their refreshing influ¬ 
ences, extensive areas of flowers are pre¬ 
sented, clad in every tint of beauty, asso¬ 
ciating every conceivable harmony of hue, 
and breathing overpowering perfumes. If 
Night reveals to the traveller glories which 
“ Heaven to gaudy day denies,” 






22 


HISTOEY OF THE BBITISH EMPIEE. 


Day discloses beneath her bright smile in 
India a variety of beauty which the brightest 
night never displays. However dazzling 
the latter, as the mind wanders amidst its 
bright immensity, it cannot yield the soft 
and placidly pleasurable emotions which the 
flower-clad landscape of the fairer portions of 
Indian lands communicate. Not only are 
the flowers of India beautiful in tint, and of 
luxurious odour, but they are of exquisite 
form—even the blind have caressed them; 
sensible of the exquisite beauty of their struc¬ 
ture, they could not but feel with the blind 
girl in the Last Days of Pompeii :— 

“ If earth be as fair as I’ve heard them say, 

These flowers her children are.” 

Could we suppose the sorrowing but beautiful 
peris of Eastern fable to take forms most 
befitting their celestial origin, but earthly 
home, we might suspect their dwelling- 
place to be in some of the lovely valleys 
which, from Cashmere to Thibet, are to be 
found sheltered among the mountains ; and 
we might, in the form, and tint, and odour of 
the far-famed flowers of these vales, recog¬ 
nise the graceful expression of their exiled 
being. Perhaps among all the flowers of 
Ind, the roses of Cashmere are the most 
lovely, as they are the most famous; and 
amidst the choice perfumes thrown off by so 
many of these “ blossoms of delight,” or ex¬ 
tracted from them by the ingenuity of man, 
the richest is the attur ghul, so renowned 
through a large portion of the Eastern world, 
from the shores of the Bay of Bengal to those 
of the Caspian Sea, and even to the Bos¬ 
phorus. One of the most curious little flowers 
of India is the Serpicula verticilata, which 
grows in the great Indian tanks. Dr. Carter 
describes it as a “ little gentle flower stretch¬ 
ing itself up from the dark bottom on its 
slender pedicle, to spread its pink petals on 
the surface of the water to the air and light. 
Wonderful little flower ! What economy of 
nature, what harmony of design, what strik¬ 
ing phenomena, what instinctive apprehen¬ 
sion, almost, is exhibited by this tiny, humble 
tenant of the lake ! Would we wish for a 
process to render water wholesome, the little 
serpicula supplies it; would we wish to pro¬ 
vide food for the other scavengers of the 
tank—the shell fish—the little serpicula, with 
its leaves and stems pregnant with starch 
granules, affords them a delicious repast; 
they browse with greediness on the tender 
shoots.” Dr. Buist remarks that this little 
plant not only maintains the tank or pond in 
which it lives in the most perfect purity, but 
that even a few sprigs of it will render a 
large vessel of water pure for culinary pur¬ 


[Chap. I 

poses. In describing its birthplace, and the 
effect of its presence in keeping water pure, 
he says, “ On looking into the tank, a magni¬ 
ficent marine landscape presents itself, with 
snow-white rocks and valleys, and rich green 
minature forests, in all directions.” 

India has not received that attention from 
botanists and floriculturists which so wide, 
prolific, and in other respects interesting a 
field deserves. The East India Company 
have established a botanical garden at Sahara - 
mapore, at an elevation above the sea of 1000 
feet. The climate and vegetation are tropical, 
notwithstanding the height, but the site is well 
chosen, the elevation and other circumstances 
tempering the heat which prevails. At Bom¬ 
bay some efforts have been put forth of late 
years to improve our acquaintance with the 
botany and flora of India; and in Calcutta 
the government has expended money in these 
objects. 

The Agricultural and Horticultural Society 
of India has brought out valuable contribu¬ 
tions from the pens of official persons all over 
India, and many rare plants and flowers have 
been examined and classified. Agricultural 
and floricultural exhibitions have taken place 
under the auspices of the society without any 
great success. The flower-shows from 1852 to 
1856, have gradually fallen away in the num¬ 
ber, rarity, and excellence of the specimens. 
Many English flowers and flowering shrubs 
have been introduced to the society’s gardens, 
as well as to those belonging to government, 
and with considerable success, although many 
plants and seeds perished through negligent 
carriage or unskilful transmission. The pub¬ 
lications issued under the auspices of the 
society above named are calculated to im¬ 
prove the British residents in India in their 
knowledge of these interesting departments 
of its resources.* Many useful, and also a 
large class of ornamental plants, have been 
introduced very lately from China to the 
north of Assam, and to the Punjaub, in 
which places they are likely still further to 
enrich the gardens and the general landscapes. 
The United States of America, and the Bri¬ 
tish colonies of the Cape and Australia have 
contributed to the treasures of India in new’ 
plants, shrubs, and flowers. 

The mineral products of India are con¬ 
siderable. Common salt is found, but not 
very extensively. Saltpetre, or nitrate of 
potash, is to be met with in marshes, and in 
caves. Sir Laurence Peel, in a paper on the 

* The “Journal” of the society, printed in English, is 
full of matter interesting to the British public at home 
and in India. The “ Miscellany” is published in Bengalee, 
and is calculated to direct the more educated natives to 
the resources of their country. 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


CnAP. I.] 

“Natural Law by which Nitrate of Soda, or 
Cubic Saltpetre acts as a Manure, and on its 
substitution for Guano,” has attempted to 
show that to its saltpetre India is indebted for 
much of its fertility. “ These substances—the 
ordinary and the cubic saltpetre—consist of an 
acid, the nitric acid, and an alkali, either 
potash or soda; nor could any one, viewing 
the effect of these individual salts, decide 
whether the acids or the alkalies were the 
source of their manuring action.” Sir Lau¬ 
rence proceeds to establish, by a detail of ex¬ 
periments, the proposition that the former 
are the fertilising powers which these salts 
contain. Having argued for his doctrine at 
considerable length, he declares that to its 
native saltpetre India is indebted for its pro¬ 
lific land, and illustrates the qualities of the 
black soil of India by an analysis of similar 
soils in other regions, and by facts demon¬ 
strative of their great fertility. 

Gold is found in very small quantities in 
the streams which issue from high sources in 
the Himalayas. 

Lead, copper, zinc, and iron, are obtained 
in various districts, but not in any very large 
quantities. Indian iron is especially well 
adapted to the manufacture of steel ; and 
some of the modern improvements in this 
manufacture in Sheffield were originally sug¬ 
gested to an English gentleman in India 
while observing the processes adopted by the 
natives. 

Tin is found in the recent British con¬ 
quests on the east of the Bay of Bengal; and 
in the hills which separate British from im¬ 
perial Birmah it is supposed, by mineralogists, 
that extensive mineral treasures exist. Excel¬ 
lent specimens of lead (rich in silver), copper, 
tin, nitre, salt, quicksilver, alum, iron, &c., 
have been brought away from those hills. In 
fact, whatever be the extent of these treasures, 
their variety is not surpassed in any country 
in the world. India proper is far inferior in 
metallic wealth, so far as is at present known, 
to the boundary regions of Tenesserim and 
Pegu. Precious stones are also^ found in 
these hills—rubies, sapphires, jaspers, and in 
some instances diamonds. 

On a former page, when noticing the 
Himalayas, the reader was informed en pas¬ 
sant, that gems were frequently found there. 
But not only there, in all the hill countries of 
the peninsula the most valuable precious 
stones are picked up. 

The diamond mines of Golconda are well 
known, and descriptions of their wealth are 
familiar to the general reader. In the red iron¬ 
stone, clay, and gravel of Pauna, in Bundel- 
cund, diamonds of great beauty are frequently 
discovered. There are probably no countries 


23 • 

in the world so rich in gems and precious 
stones as India and the neighbouring pro¬ 
vinces of Tenesserim and Pegu. Of late 
years various projects have been set on foot 
for utilising the valuable mineral resources of 
India. 

The animal kingdom has representatives 
in India of very many species. Of the large 
quadrupeds the elephant, camel, buffalo, rhi¬ 
noceros, and horse, are most extensively to 
be met with. The elephant is wild in many 
districts, and frequently damages the cul¬ 
tivated country. When tamed his useful¬ 
ness is only to be exceeded by that of the 
horse, and his sagacity is equalled by no 
other animal known to man. As a beast of 
burden he is very efficient, from his pro¬ 
digious strength united to unrivalled docility. 
He will drag guns over difficult country, and 
with his trunk raise them up and free them, 
when by any accident they are entangled in 
rutty or rocky land, or amidst jungle. The 
princes of India use the elephant for purposes 
of carriage in peace and war. Seated in 
palanquins, raised upon his back, they go 
forth to battle, to the tiger hunt, or in pro¬ 
cessions of peaceful state. 

The buffalo is much used in particular 
districts, he draws the clumsy native carts, 
slowly and quietly, but efficiently. 

The camel also is very useful when domes¬ 
ticated, which he is in many parts of India. 
The British have used camel expresses, from 
the fleetness with which he travels. They have 
also used camel batteries in war.* In the 
sandy regions of the north-west the camel 
and wild ass roam at large. 

The rhinoceros is found in the north-east, 
in the more remote and secluded forests. 

The horse is to be found everywhere in 
India in the service of man. The native 
princes use it very extensively for purposes of 
war. This animal is not bred in every part 
of India of equal value. In a paper commu¬ 
nicated by the Chamber of Commerce of 
Calcutta to the government of India, the 
following remarks occur as to the diverse 
qualities of the horse in various parts of the 
peninsula and surrounding countries :—“ The 
Rungpore and Thibetian horse possess very 
close assimilation, when compared with that 
of the plains lying westwardly, viz., of the 
Deccan, Scinde, Persia, and Arabia, notwith¬ 
standing the variations found in the animals 
of each of these last-named countries. The 
main characteristics of the two races are so 
obviously marked as to admit of no dispute 
about their distinctiveness; the former ex¬ 
hibiting the primitive rudeness of nature, the 

* There is a beautiful specimen of a brass camel gun 
in the museum of the East India House. 










24 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. I. 


latter the graces and amenities consequent 
on improved training and better chosen 
localities.” 

The Asiatic lion, although not so strong 
an animal as the African, is nevertheless a 
noble creature, and in the northern provinces 
of India he roams at large in the many 
retired situations adapted to his habits. 

The tiger, as already noticed when de¬ 
scribing the delta of the Ganges, has his 
haunts in the marshy and jungle-covered 
districts of the Bengal coast. Tigers of infe¬ 
rior strength inhabit the jungles thence to 
the glaciers of the Himalayas. 

Panthers, leopards, ounces, and various 
other species of the feline, as well as several 
of the canine, abound throughout India. 

The varieties of Indian deer are beautiful, 
and are numerous in all the less populous 
regions of the peninsula. The red deer, 
renowned for the sweetness of its flesh, seeks 
the herbage high in the mountains. 

The famous shawl-goat inhabits elevated 
ranges of the Himalayas. There are seve¬ 
ral varieties of this animal. The goat of 
Cashmere, which browses on the slopes of 
the beautiful hills that begirt the valley, is 
best known. The wild goat of Nepaul is a 
beautiful and agile creature, his head and 
limbs being exceedingly well formed. 

Monkeys are deified in Indian superstition, 
they therefore do not decrease within the 
limits of human habitations as do other wild 
animals. Numerous tribes of them may be 
heard chattering and screaming in every 
direction suitable for their increase. 

The jackal is one of the most useful as 
well as dangerous animals in India. He 
prowls about the villages, committing depre¬ 
dations after his nature ; but he at the same 
time acts as a village scavenger, entering the 
streets at night, and removing the offal and 
filth which are so often permitted to collect 
near oriental dwellings. 

Hunting the lion, tiger, leopard, panther, 
ounce, &c., are favourite sports with adven¬ 
turous Anglo-Indian gentlemen, and many 
perils are incurred in these wild sports of the 
East. 

Birds common to Europe are also well- 
known in India, such as peacocks, crows, 
eagles, falcons, the common sparrow, cuckoos, 
cranes, wild geese, snipes, bustards, vultures, 
&c. The birds peculiar to the tropics are in 
India remarkable for their magnificent plu¬ 
mage ; this is especially the case with parrots 
and paroquets. The laughing-crow is one of 
the most remarkable species of the country. 
They fly in flocks of fifty or a hundred, and 
make a noise which resembles laughter. The 
adjutant and some species of crane, also act 


as street-scavengers, carrying off carrion and 
offal; they are therefore never molested 
The pheasants of the Himalayas are probably 
the finest in size, form, and plumage, of any 
in the world. The Himalayan bustard is also 
a beautiful bird. The wild-fowl of India is 
the stock from which our ordinary barn-door 
fowl has sprung. In the provinces conquered 
from Birmah there is probably greater variety 
of birds than anywhere in India proper. 
Waterfowl are there especially abundant, and, 
in the opinion of Indian epicures, are of sur¬ 
passing flavour. The peacock of Pegu is the 
most beautiful in the world, and the peahen 
comes nearer in gaudy plumage to her lord 
than elsewhere characterises the females of 
her class. The most remarkable of the birds 
in Tenesserim and Pegu are the swallows, 
who build edible nests. These nests are ex¬ 
ported to China, where there is an eager de¬ 
mand for them, they being considered a great 
delicacy of Chinese fare. The government 
realises a revenue from their export. 

Ornithologists have recently sought for 
objects of study in India, and progress in 
this department is rapidly being made. 

The insect-life in India is as varied as 
nature is in almost every other aspect which 
she presents in that wonderful land. Enty- 
mologists will not, however, find so wide a 
scope as in tropical America. Perhaps the 
vast country comprehended in the Brazilian 
empire is the most prolific in this department of 
any country on the globe. The locust of the 
East is often a dangerous enemy to vegetable 
life in India. Vast clouds of these insects, 
darkening the air, pass over an extent of 
country, and then suddenly descend upon the 
verdure, which they utterly consume. The 
natives use them for food, having fried them 
with oil, and regard them as palatable. 

Mosquitoes are a terrible infliction, but are 
not felt so severely as in the West Indies. 
Scorpions are numerous, and much dreaded 
both by the natives and Europeans. Centi¬ 
pedes are also formidable, and universally 
dreaded and detested. Ants and other harm¬ 
less insects abound. There are various species 
of insects peculiar to India, or more fre¬ 
quently found there, and in especial varieties, 
than elsewhere. The “ stick-insect ” has the 
appearance of dried stick. The “leaf-insects ” 
are of many kinds, and take the hue of the 
leaf they feed upon, so as not to be easily 
identified ; they are thus preserved from the 
too eager rapacity of other creatures which 
make them a prey. The “ bamboo-insect” is 
a very curious specimen of the entymological 
world. It resembles a small piece of bamboo 
so exactly that at a little distance it could 
not be distinguished from such. Not only has 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


25 


Chap. I.] 

its long slight body a strong resemblance to 
the bamboo, but each of its six legs, and 
every joint, bears distinct markings of the 
same kind. 

Spiders of various descriptions are very 
numerous. Social spiders exist in Bengal; 
their colour is a darkish grey, striped down 
the back with white.* In Bombay they are 
more common, “their nests being seen in 
every tree; the boora (Ztsiphus lattas, or 
jecjah) is the favourite, and servants cut off 
branches containing webs, and hang them up 
in the cook-room, where the spiders entrap 
and destroy the flies.” 

The mason-wasp of India is an insect of 
peculiar habits. Dr. Buist of Bombay de¬ 
scribes the male as twice the size of the 
common wasp, and of nearly the same colour, 
the slender portion which connects the abdo- , 
men with the thorax being an eighth of an 
inch in length, and scarcely thicker than 
horse-hair. The female bears no likeness 

to the male, being about one-eighth of an 
inch in size, and in colour of a bright bottle- 
green. Early in October the male begins to 
build with mud, until his edifice assumes a 
nearly spherical form, the opening at the top 
being contracted like the neck of a bottle, and 
turned over at the entrance with a flat lip, 
leaving an aperture of about one-eighth of an 
inch in diameter. He generally builds three 
of these nests. When the building is dry 
the female hovers about it, and drops a few 
ovales in each, which she attaches to the sides. 
The male then approaches, bearing a green 
caterpillar as large as himself. This he 
repeats, thrusting them down the aperture 
with as little injury as possible, so that they 
may live until the incubation of the ova has 
taken place, and the larva is liberated ; the 
latter then, in the shape of a maggot, feeds on 
the caterpillar until it is sufficiently fattened 
to pass into the pupa or chrysalis state. 
When the animal is fully developed, the 
orifice is closed with a little ball of mud, and 
the parent-wasp troubles himself no further. 
In due time the edifice is burst through, and 
the insect comes forth in its full power. 

Various kinds of fire-flies in India are 
remarkable for their brilliancy by night; 

* Bengal Hurkaru: Transactions of the Bombay 
Geographical Society. 


while by day, objects of insect life float on 
gossamer wing, tiny and beautiful specimens 
of being, reflecting in the vivid sun-rays 
innumerable hues. 

The rivers and bays are the resort of many 
species of excellent fish. These are not all 
used by Europeans, the natives delighting in 
many sorts to which the English have not 
yet become accustomed. The Indian mullet 
mango, kawall, rowball, umblefish, whiting, 
perch, sole, herring, pomfret, salmon, moun¬ 
tain mullet, &c., are all well-known and 
appreciated by the British residents. On 
the eastern coasts of the bay of Bengal, 
there are several species that do not frequent 
the waters near the western shores. The 
climbing-perch, which makes its way far up 
the rivers, and the barbel, are specimens of 
! these. The latter is of great beauty; its 
scales, when the fish is newly caught, glisten 
like brilliants. 

In India reptiles of very diverse kinds are 
nurtured by the warm climate and the abun¬ 
dant sustenance obtainable by them. Some 
of these are as harmless as they are beautiful, 
and others are of deadly venom. Those of 
minute size are found, and others of huge 
dimensions strike with terror the natives 
who meet with them. The boa arrives to 
an immense growth, and attacks the largest 
animals. The rattlesnake is as common as 
it is unwelcome; and the cobra di capella 
may be seen lifting its crest for the spring 
by any who venture near the silent spots 
where it reposes. 

Extensively as the products of India have 
been detailed in this chapter, the account 
given of them is but a mere sketch. Unless 
a work, comprising as much space as these 
volumes, were devoted exclusively to the sub¬ 
ject, imperfect justice would be done to it. The 
brief review here taken will, however, enable 
the general reader to comprehend the fertility, 
beauty, and resources, of that land for which 
the arm of England has so successfully con¬ 
tended against native rajahs, foreign invaders, 
and desperate military mutineers; and which 
it is to be hoped the genius and piety of 
England will rescue from superstition, bless 
with civilisation, and adorn by numerous 
churches, dedicated to Him by whom its 
riches and its beauties were imparted. 
















2G 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II. 


CHAPTER II. 

POPULATION—RELIGION—LANGUAGES—LITERATURE. 


It is extremely difficult, as may well be sup¬ 
posed, to obtain exact statistics of the popu¬ 
lation of India, and the territories which are 
comprised under that general name. The 
most approved publications, and the volumi¬ 
nous documents to which access may be 
obtained at the India-House, under the per¬ 
mission of the directors, cannot, however, 
collated and arranged, afford precise informa¬ 
tion. 

It has been noticed on a previous page 
that, for purposes of government, British 
India is divided into three presidencies— 
Bengal, Bombay, and Madras. It is neces¬ 
sary that the reader be informed that the 
Bengal presidency has three great divisions, 
—one under the immediate control of the 
governor-general of India, another under the 
directions of the lieutenant-governor of Ben¬ 
gal, these being regarded as one ; the third 
comprises the north-west provinces, under 
a separate lieutenant-governor. A recent 
statistical arrangement of the different pro¬ 
vinces, with a view T of showing their area and 
population, gives the following result, as 
matters stood up to 1852 :*— 

The BENGAL REGULATION DISTRICTS are 
seven, viz.:— 

1. The Jessore Division, containing the districts or 
collectorates of Jessore, the twenty-four Pergunuahs, 
Burdwan, Hoogly, Nuddea, Bancoorah, and Baraset. 
Area 14,853 square miles. Population 5,345,472. 

2. The Bhajigulpore Division, containing the districts 
or collectorates of Bhaugulpore, Dinapore, Monghir, 
Poorneah, Tirhoot, and Malda. Area 26,464 square 
miles. Population 8,431,000. 

3. The Cuttack Division, containing Cuttack with 
Pooree, Balasore, Midnapore and Hidgellee, and Koordah. 
Area 12,664 square miles. Population 2,793,883. 

4. The Moorshedabad Division, containing Moor- 
shedahad, Bagoorah, Rnngpore, Rajshahye, Pubna, and 
Beerbhoom. Area 17,566 square miles. Population 
6,815,876. 

5. The Dacca Division, containing Dacca, Furreed- 
pore,—Dacca Jelalpore, Mymensing, Sylhet, including 
Jyntea, and Bakergunge including Deccan Shabazpore. 
Area 20,942 square miles. Population 4,055,800. 

6. The Patna Division, containing Shahabad, Patna, 
Behar, and Sarun with Chumparan. Area 13,803 square 
miles. Population 7,000,000. 

7. The Chittagong Division, containing Chittagong, 
and Tipperah and Bulloah. Area 7,410 square miles. 
Population 2,406,950. 

The NON-REGULATION PROVINCES within the 
limits of the Presidency of Bengal, subject to the authority 
of functionaries appointed by the Governor-General or 
Government of Bengal, are nine, as follow:— 

* M'Kenna. 


1. Saugor and Nerbuddah Province, containing 
Jaloun and the Pergunnahs ceded by Jhansie—area 1873 
square miles ; population 176,297: the Saugor and Ner¬ 
buddah territories, comprising the districts of Saugor, 
Jubbulpore, Hoshungabad, Seonee, Dumoh, Nursingpore, 
Baitool, and British Mhairwarrah. Area 15,670 square 
miles. Population 1,967,302. 

2. Cis-Sutlej* Province,containingUmballa, Loodiana 
including Wudnee, Kythul and Ladwa, Ferozepore, and 
the territory lately belonging to Sikh chiefs who have been 
reduced to the condition of British subjects, in consequence 
of non-performance of feudatory obligations during the 
Lahore war. Area 4559 square miles. Population 
619,413. 

3. North-East Frontier (Assam) Province, con¬ 
taining Cossya Hills, Cachar, (lower) Camroop, Newgong, 
Durrung, — and (upper) Joorhat (Seebpore), Luckimpore, 
and Sudiya, including Mutruck. Area 21,805 square 
miles. Population 780,935. 

4. Goalpara Province, containing an area of 3506 
square miles. Population 400,000. 

5. Arracan Province, containing an area of 15,104 
square miles. Population 321,522. 

6. Tenesserim Provinces, containing an area of 
29,168 square miles. Population 115,431. 

7. South-West Frontier Provinces, containing Sum- 
bulpore, Ramghur or Hazareebah, Lohurdugga, Chota 
Nagpore, Palamow,—Singbhoom, Maunbhoom, Pachete, 
and Barabhoom. Area 30,589 square miles. Population 
2,627,456. 

8. The Punjaub, inclusive of the Jullunder Doab and 
Kooloo territory. Area 78,447 square miles. Popula¬ 
tion 4,100,983. 

9. The Sunderbunds, from Saugor Island on the 
west, to the Ramnabad Channel on the east. Area 6500 
square miles. Population unknown. 

The REGULATION PROVINCES of the Agra Divi¬ 
sion of the Bengal Presidency, subject to the jurisdiction 
of the Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Pro¬ 
vinces, are divided into six Regulation Divisions and seven 
Non-Regulation Districts, as follow:— 

1. Delhi Province, containing the districts of Paniput, 
Hurreeanah, Delhi, Rotuclc, and Goorgaon. Area 8463 
square miles. Population 1,569,501. 

2. Meerut Province, containing Saharunpore, Musaf- 
firnuggur, Meerut, Boolundshuhur, and Allighur. Area 
10,118 square miles. Population 3,384,432. 

3. Rohilcund Province, containing Bijnour, Moiada- 
bad, Budaon, Bareilly and Phillibheet, and Shahjehanpore. 
Area 12,659 square miles. Population 4,399,865. 

4. Agra Province, containing Muttra, Agra, Fiuruc- 
kabad, Meinpoorie, and Etawah. Area 9059 square 
miles. Population 3,505,740. 

5. Allahabad Province, containing Cawnpore, Futteh- 
pore, Humeerpore and Calpee, Banda, and Allahabad. 
Area 11,839 square miles. Population 3,219,043. 

6. Benares Province, containing Goruckpore, Azim- 
ghur, Jouupore, Mirzapore, Benares, and Ghazepore. 
Area 19,834 square miles. Population 7,121,087. 

The NON-REGULATION PROVINCES are as 

follow :— 

The Bhattie Territory, including Wuttoo, the Per- 

* The whole country of the Punjaub is now British 
territory. 










Chap. II.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


27 


gunnah of Kote Kasim province, the Jaunsar and Bawur 
province, the Dehra Doon province, Kumaon (including 
Ghurwal) province, Ajtneer province, and British Nimaur 
province. Area 13,599 square miles. Population 
600,881. 

MADRAS is divided for Revenue purposes into twenty- 
one Divisions, or Collectorates, of which eighteen are under 
the regulations of the Madras government. They are as 
follow:— 

1. Rajahmundry Collectorate, containing an area of 
6050 square miles. Population 887,260. 

2. Masulipatam Collectorate, containing an area of 
5000 square miles. Population 544,672. 

3. Guntoor, including Paulnaud Collectorate, contain¬ 
ing an area of 4960 square miles. Population 483,831. 

4. Nellore Collectorate, containing an area of 7930 
square miles. Population 421,822. 

5. Chingleput Collectorate, containing an area of 3020 
square miles. Population 404,368. 

6. Madras, included in Chingleput, containing a popu¬ 
lation of 462,951. 

7. Arcot, South Division, including Cuddalore, con¬ 
taining an area of 7610 square miles. Population 873,925. 

8. Arcot, North Division, including Consoody, contain¬ 
ing an area of 5790 square miles. Population 623,717. 

9. Bellary Collectorate, containing an area of 13,056 
square miles. Population ] ,200,000. 

10. Cuddapah Collectorate, containing an area of 
12,970 square miles. Population 1,228,546. 

11. Salem Collectorate, including Vomundoor and 
Mullapandy, containing an area of 8200 square miles. 
Population 946,181. 

12. Coimbatore Collectorate, containing an area of 
8280 square miles. Population 821,986. 

13. Triciiinopoly Collectorate, containing an area of 
3000 square miles. Population 634,400. 

14. Tanjore Collectorate, including Najore, containing 
an area of 3900 square miles. Population 1,128,730. 

15. Madura Collectorate, including Dindigul, contain¬ 
ing an area of 10,700 square miles. Population 570,340. 

16. Tinnivelly Collectorate, containing an area of 
5700 square miles. Population 1,065,423. 

17. Malabar Collectorate, containing au area of 6060 
square miles. Population 1,318,398. 

18. Canara Collectorate, containing an area of 7720 
square miles. Population 995,656. 

The three NON-REGULATION DISTRICTS are 
under the control of the agents of the Governor. They 
are as follow:— 

1. Gangam, containing an area of 6400 square miles. 
Population 438,174. 

2. Yizagapatam, containing an area of 15,300 square 
miles. Population 1,047,414. 

3. Kurnoul, containing an area of 3243 square miles. 
Population 241,632. 

The BOMBAY PRESIDENCY is, for Revenue pur¬ 
poses, divided into thirteen Regular Divisions, or Collec¬ 
torates, with three Non-Regulation Provinces. They are 
as follow:— 

1. Surat Collectorate, containing an area of 1629 
square miles. Population 433,260. 

2. Broach Collectorate, containing an area of 1319 
square miles. Population 262,631. 

3. Ahmedabad Collectorate, containing an area of 
4356 square miles. Population 590,754. 

4. Kaira Collectorate, containing au area of 1869 
square miles. Population 566,513. 

5. Candeish Collectorate, containing an area of 9311 
square miles. Population 685,619. 

6. Tannah Collectorate, containiug au area of 5477 
square miles. Population 764,320. 


7. Poonah Collectorate, containing au area of 5298 
square miles. Population 604,990. 

8. Ahmednuggur Collectorate, including Nassick Sub- 
Collectorate, containing an area of 9931 square miles. 
Population 929,809. 

9. Sholapore Collectorate, containing au area of 4991 
square miles. Population 613,863. 

10. Belgaum Collectorate, containiug an area of 5405 
square miles. Population 860,193. 

11. Dharwar Collectorate, containing an area of 3837 
square miles. Population 647,196. 

12. Rutnagherry Collectorate, containing an area of 
3964 square miles. Population 625,782. 

13. Bombay Island, including Colaba, containing an 
area of 18 square miles. Population 566,119. 

The NON-REGULATION PROVINCES, under the 
control of the Bombay Government, are three, as 
follow:— 

1. Colaba (formerly Angria’s), containing an area of 
318 square miles. Population 53,453. 

2. Scinde, containing Shikarpore, Hyderabad, and 
Kurrachee. Area 52,120 square miles. Population 
1,274,744. 

3. Sattaua,* containing an area of 10,222 square 
miles. Population 1,005,771. 

The EASTERN STRAITS SETTLEMENTS are four, 
as follow:— 

1. Penang, containing an area of 160 square miles. 
Population 39,589. 

2. Province Wellesley, containing an area of 140 
square miles. Population 51,509. 

3. Singapore, containing an area of 275 square miles. 
Population 57,421. 

4. Malacca, containing an area of 1000 square miles. 
Population 54,021. 

The NATIVE STATES, which, although not under 
the direct rule, being still within the limits of the political 
supremacy of the East India Company, require to be 
classed with reference to the British authority, by which 
they are immediately controlled. They are a3 follow:— 

I.—BENGAL. 

The Government of Bengal keeps— 

A Political Resident at Hyderabad, f in the Deccan, 
at the court of the Nizam, whose territories extend over 
an area of 95,337 square miles, with a population of 
10,666,080, and a subsidiary alliance. 

A Political Resident at Lucknow, J at the court of the 
King of Oude, whose territories extend over an area of 
23,738 square miles, with a population of 2,970,000, and 
a subsidiary alliance. 

A Political Resident at Katmandoo, for the Rajah of 
Nepaul, whose territories extend over an area of 54,500 
square miles, with a population of 1,940,000. This state 
is not under British protection; but the rajah is bound 
by treaty to abide, in certain cases, by the decision of the 
British government, and is prohibited from retain¬ 
ing in his service subjects of any European or American 
state. 

A Political Resident at Nagpore, with the Rajah of 
Berar, whose territories extend over an area of 76,432 
square miles, with a population of 4,650,000, and a sub¬ 
sidiary alliance. 

The Governor-General’s Agent for Scindiah’s Domi¬ 
nions, Bundelcund, Saugor, and Nerbuddah territories, has 
the protection of Gwalior, containing a territory of 33,119 

* The deposition of the rajah has altered the relations 
of his territory to the Company. 

f Recently annexed to the Company’s territories. 

t The King of Oude deposed, and his country annexed. 











28 


HISTORY OF THE 

square miles, with a population of 3,228,512, and a sub¬ 
sidiary alliance,—and also of Bundelcund, comprising the 
small states of AdjygKur, Allypoora, Bijawur, Baonee, 
Behut, Bijna, Berounda, Bhysondah, Behree, Chirkaree, 
Chutterpore, Dutteah, Doonvai, Gurowlee, Gorihar, Jhansi, 
Jussoo, Jignee, Khuddee, Kampta, Logasee, Mukree, 
Mowagoon, Nyagaou, Oorcha, Punna, Paharee, Ptihrah, 
Paldeo, Poorwa, Sumpthur, Surehlah, Tohree Futtehpore, 
and Taraon—the Saugor and Nerbuddah territory, com¬ 
prising Kothee, Myheer, Oeheyrah, Rewa, and Mookund- 
pore, Sohawul, and Shaghur, containing an area of 
56,311 square miles, with a population of 5,871,112. 

The Resident at Indore has the protection of Indore, 
containing an area of 8318 square miles, with a population 
of 815,164, and a subsidiary alliance,—and also of Am- 
jherra, Alle Mohun, or Rajpore Ali, Burwanee, Dhar, 
Dewas, Jowra, and its Jaghiredars, Jabooa, Rutlam, and 
Seeta Mhow, extending over an area of 15,680 square 
miles, with a population of 1,415,200. 

The Bhopal Political Agent, under the Resident at 
Indore, has the protection of Bhopal, llajghur, and Nur- 
singhur, and Koorwaee, extending over an area of 8312 
square miles, with a population of 815,360. 

The Governor-General’s Agents for the states of Raj- 
pootana have the protection of the states of Alwur, 
Bhurtpore, Bikaneer, Jessulmeer, Kishenghur, Kerowlee, 
Tonk, and its dependencies, Dholepore, Kotah, Shallawur, 
Boondee, Joudpore, Jeypore, Odeypore, Pertabghur, 
Doongerpore, Banswara, and Serohee, extending over an 
area of 119,859 souare miles, with a population of 
8,745,098. 

The Agent in Rohilcund has the protection of Ram- 
pore, extending over an area of 720 square miles, with a 
population of 320,400. 

The Superintendent of the Hill States has the pro¬ 
tection of Bhagul, Bughat, Bujee, Bejah, Bulsun, Bus- 
sahir, Dhamie, Dhoorcattie, Durwhal, Hindoor, or Na- 
laghur, Joobul, Kothar, Koornyhar, Keonthul, Koom- 
harsin, Kuhloor, Mangul, Muhlog, Manee Meyrah, 
Sirmoor, Mundi, and Sookeit, extending over an area of 
11,017 square miles, with a population of 673,457. 

The Delhi Agency has the protection of Jhujjur, Baha- 
doorghur, Bullubghur, Patowdee, Deojana, Loharoo, and 
Furrucknuggur, extending over an area of 1835 square 
miles, with a population of 217,550. 

The Commissioner and Superintendent of the Cis- 
Sutlej States has the protection of the following 
Sikh states (protected since April 25, 1809), Puttiala, 
Jhcend, Furreedkote, Rai Kotc, Boorech (Dealghur), 
Mundote, Chichrowlee, Nabha, and Mulair Kotla, extend¬ 
ing over an area of 6746 square miles, with a population 
of 1,005,154. 

The Political Agent on the South-West Frontier 
has the protection of Korea, Sirjooja, Jushpore, Odey¬ 
pore, Suctee, Sohnpore, Burgun, Nowagur, Ryghur, 
Patna, Gangpore, Keriall, Bonei, Phooljee, Sarunghur, 
Bora Samba, Bombra, Singbhoom, Kursava, and Serickala, 
extending over an area of 25,431 square miles, with a 
population of 1,245, 655. 

The Superintendent at Darjeeling protects and super¬ 
intends Sikkim, containing an area of 2504 square miles, 
with a population of 92,648. 

The Board of Administration for the affairs of the 
PunjaUb has the charge and protection of the Nabob of 
Bhawulpore, whose territories extend over an area of 
20,003 square miles, with a population of 600,000—and 
of Gholab Singh, with his territory (including Cashmere), 
extending over an area of 25,123 square miles, with a 
population of 750,000. 

The Governor-General’s Agent for the North-East 
Frontier has the charge and protection of Cooch Behar, 
Tuleram Senaputty, and of the Cossya and Garrow Hills, 
comprising the Garrows, Ram Rye, Nustung, Muriow, 
Molyong, Mahram, Osimla, and Kyrim, and other petty 


BRITISH EMPIRE [Chap. II. 

states, with an area of 7711 square miles, and a popula¬ 
tion of 231,605. 

A Political Agent protects Munneepore, containing an 
area of 7584 square miles, with a population of 75,840. 
—Tipperah, an independent jungle country, containing an 
area of 7632 square miles, with a population of 7632,— 
and the Cuttack Mehals, viz.:—Dhenkanaul, Autgur, 
Berumbah, Tiggreah, Banky, Nyaghur, Kundiapurra, 
Runpore, Hindole, Angool, Nursingpore, Talchur, Neel- 
gur, Koonjerry, Mohurbungc, Boad, Autmallic, and Dus- 
pulla. Area 16,929 square miles. Population 761,805. 

II. —MADRAS. 

The NATIVE STATES, subordinate to the MADRAS 
Government, are as follow:— 

A Resident has charge of Cochin. Area 1988 square 
miles, with a population of 288,176, and a subsidiary 
alliance. 

A Commissioner manages Mysore. Area 30,886 
square miles, with a population of 3,000,000, and a sub¬ 
sidiary alliance. 

A Resident has charge of Travancore. Area 4722 
square miles, with a population of 1,011,824, and a sub¬ 
sidiary alliance. 

A Government Agent for the District of Vizagapatam 
has charge of the Jeypore and Hill Zemindars, with their 
territories, extending over an area of 13,041 square miles, 
with a population of 391,230, as they are protected. 

III. —BOMBAY. 

The NATIVE STATES, subordinate to the BOMBAY 
Government, are as follow:— 

The Political Resident at Baroda superintends the 
Guicowar’s dominions, comprising an area of 4399 square 
miles, with a population of 325,526, and a subsidiary 
alliance. 

The Political Agent at Kattywar superintends several 
petty chiefs, with a territory of 19,850 square miles, and 
a population of 1,468,900. 

The Political Agent at Pahlunpore controls Pahlun- 
pore, Radhunpore, Warye, Thurraud, Merwara, Wow, 
Soegaum, Charcut, Therwarra, Doddur, Baubier, Thurra, 
Kankrej, and Chowrar. Area 5250 square miles. Popu¬ 
lation 388,500. 

The Collector of Kaira has the protection and charge 
of Cambay and Ballasinore, containing an area of 758 
square miles, with a population of 56,092. 

The Agent to the Governor at Surat protects Dhur- 
rumpore, Bansda, and Suckeen, containing an area of 850 
square miles, with a population of 62,900. 

The Collector of Ahmednuggur has the charge of the 
Daung Rajahs, Peint, and Hursool, containing an area of 
1700 square miles. Population 125,800. 

A Political Agent protects and manages Kola pore, 
containing an area of 3445 square miles, with a population 
of 500,000. 

A Political Superintendent manages Sawunt Warree, 
with an area of 800 square miles, and a population of 
120,000. 

A Political Agent in Myhee Caunta controls Myhee 
Caunta, Daunta, Edur, Ahmednuggur, Peit, and other 
petty states, Rewa Caunta, Loonawarra, Soauth, Barreea, 
Odeypore (Chota), Mewassee States, Rajpeepla and other 
petty states, and Wusravee, and adjacent country. Area 
5329 square miles. Population 394,346. 

A Political Agent superintends Cutch, with an area of 
6764 square miles, and a population of 500,536. 

The Sattara Jaghiredar of Akulkote, with an area of 75 
square miles, and a population of 8325, is uuder the 
superintendence of the Collector of Siiolapore ; and the 
remaining chiefs of Bhore, Juth, Ound, Phultun, and 
Wyhee, are under the protection of the Commissioner in 
Sattara. 



Chap. II.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST 


29 


The Southern Mahratta Jaghiredars of Sanglee, Koon- 
war, Meeruj, Jhumkhundee, Moodhole, Nurgoond, Hablee, 
and Savanoor, are under a political agent in the Southern 
Mahratta country, and are protected. Area 3700 
square miles. Population 410,700. 

The foreign possessions in India are now reduced to 
those of two powers, viz.: the Prench and the Portu¬ 
guese. The French possessions were often taken, but 
restored by the treaties of peace in 1763, 1783, 1802, 
and 1815. For several years during the war in the 
beginning of the present century, the Portuguese settle¬ 
ments were occupied and protected by British troops. In 
1824 the Dutch exchanged their possessions for the British 
settlements in Sumatra; and the Danes sold Serampore 
and Tranquebar in 1844. 

FRENCH SETTLEMENTS. 
Pondicherry, with an area of 107 square miles, and 
a population of 79,743. 

Carical, with an area of 63 square miles, and a popu¬ 
lation of 49,307- 

Yanaon, with an area of 13 square miles, and a popu¬ 
lation of 6881. 

Mahee, with an area of 2 square miles, and a popula¬ 
tion of 2616. 

Chandernagore, with an area of 3 square miles, and 
a population of 32,670. 

PORTUGUESE SETTLEMENTS. 

Goa, and the Island of Damaun and Diu, with an area 
of 800 square miles, of which the population is said not 
to exceed 360,000. 

Various alterations liave occurred in tlie 
arrangements of districts, resulting from the 
annexation of new provinces, such as the 
Nizam’s country, the kingdom of Oude, terri¬ 
tory connected with Scinde and the Pun- 
jaub, and the recent provinces conquered 
from Birmah—Tenesserim, and more lately, 
Pegu. It is probable that new arrangements 
of territorial division will depend upon the 
- means taken for the pacification of the country 
upon the suppression of the great military 
revolt. The readjustment of provinces alters 
the relative amount of superficial area, and 
of population. The above, however, is the 
nearest available approximation to accuracy 
of detail, and will at least furnish the reader 
with such a general knowledge of the extent 
and population of the presidencies, their dis¬ 
tricts, and dependencies, as will enable him to 
approach the subject with some adequate idea 
of the greatness of our Indian empire. 

Colonel Sykes, M.P., called for returns, 
which were furnished by the Board of Con¬ 
trol, and which, in some respects, correct the 
above details, giving a considerably higher 
estimate of the numbers of the population, 
and a somewhat larger estimate of the area 
in square miles. According to the papers 
furnished to the House of Commons, the 
gross total area of all the governments of 
India is 1,466,576 square miles; the British 
states occupying 837,412; the native states, 


627,910; and the French and Portuguese 
possessions, 1254; and that the gross total 
population is 180,884,297 souls—namely, 
131,990,901 in the British states, 48,376,247 
in the native, and 517,149 in the foreign pos¬ 
sessions of France and Portugal. The Bri¬ 
tish states, under the governor-general of 
India in council, cover an area of 246,050 
square miles, and are peopled by 23,255,972 
souls ; the states under the lieutenant-gover¬ 
nor of Bengal occupy 221,969 square miles, 
and are peopled by 40,852,397 souls; the 
states under the lieutenant-governor of the 
north-west provinces occupy 105,759 miles, 
and are peopled by 33,655,193 souls; the 
states under the Madras government occupy 
132,090 miles, and are peopled by 22,437,297 
souls; and the states under the Bombay 
government occupy 131,544 square miles, 
and are peopled by 11,790,042 souls. The 
native states in the Bengal presidency occupy 
515,533 square miles, and are peopled by 
38,702,206 souls ; those in the Madras presi¬ 
dency occupy 51,802 miles, and are peopled 
by 5,213,671 souls ; and those in the Bom¬ 
bay presidency occupy a space of 60,575 
square miles, and are peopled by 6,440,370 
souls. The French territory in India covers 
an area of 188 square miles, and is peopled 
by 203,887 souls ; while the Portuguese ter¬ 
ritory occupies an area of 1066 square miles, 
and is peopled by 313,262 souls. 

Even parliamentary returns cannot be ac¬ 
cepted as absolutely correct, either as to the 
number of population, or the area of territory, 
concerning which this chapter affords the 
most probable estimate. As official reports 
they are, however, entitled to all the weight 
which superior opportunity for acquiring 
information possesses. How vast the multi¬ 
tude of human beings who inhabit the wide, 
fertile, and picturesque regions comprehended 
under the generic designation, India ! What 
civilised empire ever before possessed a num¬ 
ber of subjects at all approaching that which 
peoples the Indian dominions of Britain ? 

The races which inhabit these regions are 
various—Hindoos, Chinese, Tartars, Affghans, 
Persians, Arabs, Beloochees, and other tribes 
of lesser influence, swell the human tide which 
has ebbed and flowed in so many revolutions 
within the boundaries of those coveted realms. 
The Hindoo race forms the majority of the 
people ; its origin is lost in extreme antiquity. 
In the outline that will be given of ancient 
Indian history, the question of race will come 
more properly under review; it is here only 
necessary to say that numerically this is the 
prevailing tribe of the inhabitants of the 
peninsula. The Mohammedan conquerors of 
India overflowed the country from Affglian- 










30 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II. 


istan, Persia, and Central Asia. They are 
numerically much inferior to the Hindoos, 
hut have maintained an impression of autho¬ 
rity and power which, apart from their reli¬ 
gion, distinguishes them from the Hindoo 
population. 

The religious history of India is curious 
and interesting, and will fall within the scope 
of the political history, for the one is too 
intimately blended with the other for separate 
record. In describing with accuracy the 
doctrines and practices at present prevailing, 
an intimate knowledge of the early religious 
history of the country is important, for it is 
not possible to know thoroughly the moral 
influence of a religion without penetrating its 
philosophy, and that involves a knowledge of 
its origin and progress. The difficulty of 
ascertaining the origin of Hindooism is great, 
not only from the remote antiquity into which 
investigation must penetrate, hut from the fact 
that the Greeks, in their accounts of India (and 
they are the most reliable historians of 
ancient India), so associate the gods of Hin- 
doostan with those of Greece, and use the 
names of their own deities interchangeably 
with different Hindoo gods, that the theology 
of Hindooism has been confused, and its early 
history often as much clouded as illustrated, 
by Greek vanity, prejudice, and liberality, 
strangely blended. 

The Hindoo people do not appear to have 
been the earliest inhabitants of the country 
now recognised as theirs. Another race, and 
perhaps other races, were spread over the 
territory before its possession by the Hindoo. 
Dr. Cook Taylor considers that they were 
barbarous tribes, who fell away before the 
superior knowledge of a peaceful people, 
who, by their science, morality, and religious 
propaganda, obtained the ascendancy which 
other peoples have acquired by arms,—that 
they were rather settlers than invaders. He 
seems to rest this opinion upon the fact of 
their having a language so perfect as the 
Sanscrit, and a priesthood so elaborately 
organised as the Brahminical. Neither of 
these grounds seems sufficient for the hypo¬ 
thesis. There is no proof that the early 
settlers, or victors, whichever they were, 
had an elaborately constructed hierarchy, or 
ritual,—nor are there any traditions among 
the descendants of the race who originally 
encroached upon the territory now called Hin- 
doostan, to prove that they came simply as 
peaceful settlers; while there are many indi¬ 
cations, even in their own traditions, that they 
superseded races, or a race, less aggressive 
and subtle. The cruel distinctions of caste 
which prevailed among the Hindoos of early 
times, although far less rigorous than that 


which their descendants now observe, forbids 
the idea of their having been a peculiarly 
gentle sept, leaning for power upon their 
moral, religious, and intellectual superiority 
in a propagandism of peace. They are gene¬ 
rally supposed to have come originally from 
Central Asia, by way of Affghanistan and the 
Punjaub, rapidly multiplying in numbers, 
but not by fresh accessions of the original 
stock. The whole tribe seems to have moved 
at once, and gradually to have advanced, 
seeking more fertile lands, until it finally 
settled in the country now known as Hin- 
doostan Proper. 

The Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, ex¬ 
amining the laws of caste, as laid down in 
the book of Menu, concluded that the lowest 
caste was a vanquished one, and the descen¬ 
dants of the original inhabitants, while the 
privileged castes were the descendants of the 
conquerors. “It is impossible not to con¬ 
clude that the ‘ twice born ’ (the higher 
castes) were a conquering people; that the 
servile class were the subdued aborigines; 
and that the independent Sudra towns, which 
were in each of the small territories into 
which Hindoostan was divided, still retained 
their independence; while the whole of the 
tract beyond the Himalaya Mountains re¬ 
mained as yet untouched by the invaders, 
and unpenetrated by their religion.” Mr. 
Elphinstone then suggests a doubt, whether 
the conquerors, instead of being a foreign 
people, were not a native tribe, or a spreading 
and aggrandizing sect of superior intelligence 
and energy. After giving a summary of the 
arguments for this view, while his own lean¬ 
ing is obviously to the former, he says, 

“ The question, therefore, is still open. There 
is no reason for thinking that the Hindoos 
ever inhabited any country but their present 
one ; and there is little for denying that they 
may have done so before the earliest trace of 
their records or traditions.” Mr. Elphinstone’s 
own mind seems to have wavered as he wrote 
—the conflicting evidences noted by his own 
pen caused his opinions to fluctuate. It 
seems, however, from the evidences presented 
by himself, that the Hindoo people were 
wanderers from another region, bringing with 
them a religion more simple and more con¬ 
formable to truth than that which is pro¬ 
fessed by their descendants; and as their 
religion gradually became corrupt, their insti¬ 
tutions became more unjust, and were per¬ 
vaded by more of a class spirit. The question 
of race is so far mixed up with the origin of 
their religion as to render this reference to it 
here necessary. There can be no doubt that 
the tribe entered North-western India with 
religious ideas but little tinctured 'with super- 





Chap. II.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


31 


stition, at all events comparatively little. 
The simple but sublime faith which was 
borne from Ararat with the first wanderers, 
after the Deluge subsided, was that which 
mainly inspired the hope and moral life of 
the better instructed among the primitive 
Hindoos, however impotent it might be upon 
the hearts of the masses, who, in obedience to 
the migratory character of the early nations, 
went forth in quest of lands adapted to their 
wants and dispositions. 

The religion of a people may be ascer¬ 
tained by their sacred books or written creed, 
if they have such—by the opinions they avow 
in their intercourse—by their objects and forms 
of worship, and by their moral feeling and 
practice. The Hindoos recognise two classes 
of books as of divine authority, which con¬ 
tradict one another — the Vedas and the 
Paranas. The former are consistent with 
themselves; the latter self-contradictory. The 
former has a tincture of the same philosophy 
pervading them all; the latter are incom¬ 
patible with one another. The former may 
be accepted as a whole—as constituting to¬ 
gether one authority on matters of religion; 
the latter propound opinions mutually so 
adverse as to necessitate the rejection of all, 
or the existence of a number of sects accord¬ 
ing to the portion of the proposed revelation 
which obtains the confidence of the students. 

The Vedas are of great antiquity, and are 
written in a very old form of Sanscrit. Much 
discussion exists as to the date which should 
be ascribed to them, but the opinion of Sir 
W. Jones is that which has generally been 
accepted,—that they existed about fourteen 
hundred years before Christ. Our knowledge 
of them is very imperfect, only a small por¬ 
tion having been translated into English or 
any other European tongue. 

Each of these Vedas is divided into two 
parts at least, some into three. The first is 
invariably devotional, containing prayers and 
hymns; the second moral and didactic; the 
third (when there is a third division) is theolo¬ 
gical, argumentative dissertations on the doc¬ 
trines propounded being comprised. Where 
there is not a third division, the second con¬ 
tains the theological. 

Concerning God the Vedas are polytheistic, 
although nothing can be more clear and dis¬ 
tinct than the doctrine of a supreme Deity. 
Mr. Colebrook, the eminent oriental scholar, 
represents the Indian Scriptures as teaching 
“ the unity of the Deity, in whom the 
universe is comprehended; and the seeming 
polytheism which it exhibits, offers the ele¬ 
ments, and the stars, and planets, as gods. . . 
The worship of deified heroes forms no part 
of the .system, nor are the incarnations of 


deities suggested in any part of the text, 
although such are hinted at by commen¬ 
tators.” This statement is scarcely consistent 
with itself, for if it “ offers the elements, and 
the stars, and planets as gods,” it is poly¬ 
theism, even although, in the language of 
Mr. Colebrook, “ the worship of deified heroes 
is no part of the system.” 

Professor Wilson, who is at least as com¬ 
petent a judge as Mr. Colebrook, does not 
affirm the monotheism of the Vedas, although 
he denies that they teach idolatry, by which 
he means the worship of images created by 
the hands of man. His words are, “ It is true 
that the prevailing character of the ritual of 
the Vedas is the worship of the personified ele¬ 
ments ; of Agni, or fire; Seedra, the firma¬ 
ment; Vaya, the air; Varanee, water; Adi- 
tya, the sun; Soma, the moon; and other 
elementary and planetary personages. It is 
also true that the worship of the Vedas is 
addressed to unreal personages, and not to 
visible types.” Dr. Cook Taylor quotes por¬ 
tions of those passages under the heading, 

“ Unity of the Deity Taught.” Mr. Capper, 
usually so accurate in his representations, 
quoting Elphinstone, says, “ The leading doc¬ 
trine of the Brahminical worship is the unity . 
of God. Their books (the Vedas) teach that 
there is but one deity, the Supreme Spirit, 
the Lord of the Universe, whose work is the 
universe.” Mr. Capper also gives Colebrook 
as his authority, but that gentleman repre¬ 
sents the doctrine of the Vedas concerning 
the universe to be, that it is a part of God. 
This is probably his reason for considering 
that, after all, they teach the worship of one 
god only, as they regard the elements to be 
portions of the divine nature. Professor Wil¬ 
son, however, states that they personify the 
elements, and worship these personifications. 
The Hon. Mr. Elphinstone says, that while 
the primary doctrine of the Vedas is the 
divine unity, yet, “ among the creatures of 
the Supreme Being are some superior to man, 
who should be adored, and from whom pro¬ 
tection and favours may be obtained through 
prayer. The most frequently mentioned of 
these are the gods of the elements, the stars, 
and the planets, but other personal powers 
and virtues likewise appear.” 

It is evident that it became the fashion for 
writers on India, especially those having any 
connection with the country, to make the 
most of its early literature and theology. The 
Vedas proclaim one god, who is supreme, and 
many that are subordinate and derived from 
him. This was the form of all ancient polythe¬ 
ism, and scarcely any polytheistic religion, 
however degraded and dark, but recognises 
one supreme being, Lord of all, who is unity; 










32 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 


[Chap. II. 


although the most suitable inscription they 
could place upon his temple would be that 
which the Athenians inscribed on an altar in 
the days of the Apostle Paul—“ To the un¬ 
known God.” According to Sir W. Jones, 
certain learned Brahmins represent the lan¬ 
guage of the Vedas as not only positive on the 
subject of the divine unity, but strikingly ex¬ 
pressive and beautiful. Some specimens which 
he gives would adorn the pages of a Christian 
theological professor. Assuming the correct¬ 
ness of these translations, there can be no 
reason to question the accuracy of those given 
by Colebrook, Professor Wilson, and others, 
which represent the doctrine of an inferior 
degree of worship, or of several degrees of 
inferior worship, as belonging to creatures 
real or imaginary. It is asserted by some 
that the Hindoos in their migrations brought 
the Vedas with them; other writers contend 
that they are the expression of the popular 
opinion committed to writing in the land of 
their conquest or adoption. However this 
may be, the doctrines described are such as 
had their origin at Babylon, and thence spread 
over every nation of the earth. Humboldt 
and Prescott found them in Mexico. The 
Saxons brought them to Britain. The Celts 
of every tribe in the British Islands substan¬ 
tially held them, and over all Asia they pre¬ 
vailed. Babylon was the parent of polytheism 
before it became the capital of that other form 
of idolatry, which, with stricter accuracy of 
term, bears the name. Colonel Kennedy, 
known as a Sanscrit scholar, represents the 
Brahmins as having come from Babylon.* 

Our knowledge of the Vedas is generally 
deduced from the Institutes of Menu, and 
these Sir W. Jones considers to have been 
compiled about the twelfth century before 
Christ; but the Hon. Mr. Elphinstone, with 
better reason, assigns a date three hundred 
years later. It is “an open question” whe¬ 
ther Menu was a real or dramatic personage ; 
the amount of evidence is in favour of the 
former opinion. It is probable that the name 
is derived from a root which signifies to 
number, and may have reference to the 
arrangement of times and* laws, to the Hindoo 
calendar of religious festivals and ceremonies. 
The religion, as well as the code of jurispru¬ 
dence of the earliest Hindoos settled in Hin- 
doostan, is supposed by the learned in Hin- 
dooism to be found in the code of Menu, 
although some departure from the purity of 
the Vedas, both in theology and ethics, is 
believed to characterise the Institutes. The 
doctrine of a Trinity is indicated in the 
Vedas—Fire, Air, and the Sun,f “ into some 

* Researches, p. 348. 

f Mr. Hewitt represents the Christian doctrine of the 


one of which the others are resolvable.”* 
Genii, good and evil, nymphs, demons, super¬ 
natural beasts and birds, are described as be¬ 
longing to the class of existences excelling 
man in power. Man is described as body, 
soul, and spirit, nearly in the phraseology ol 
the Apostle Paul. Communion with the gods 
is to be maintained by personal expiations of 
sin, prayers, and ritual observances. 

It is curious that while Elphinstone writes 
of the divine unity as a doctrine of the 
Vedas, he, in the following passage, describes 
the worship prescribed by them:—“ The gods 
are worshipped by burnt-offerings of clari¬ 
fied butter and libations of the juice of the 
moon-plant, at which ceremonies they are 
invoked by name; but though idols are men¬ 
tioned, and in one place desired to be re¬ 
spected, yet the adoration of them is never 
mentioned but with disapprobation.” 

According to various authorities, five sacra¬ 
ments are enjoined by the Vedas, which, 
according to the strange expression of El¬ 
phinstone, the devotees “ must daily perform.” 
It is difficult to understand what these 
writers mean by a sacrament, for the five 
mentioned do not answer to any definition of 
the term accepted among theologians, nor to 
the derivation of the word.j- The five great 
cardinal duties referred to by this term are— 
studying the Veda, making oblations to the 
manes, and to fire in honour of the deities, 
giving rice to living creatures, and receiving 
guests with honour. The modes in which 
some of these, especially the first, are to be 
accomplished, are very perplexing, being as¬ 
sociated with so many difficulties as to render 
the performance no pleasure, and very often 
altogether impracticable. 

The morality of these sacred books is, on 
the whole, rather better than the theology. 
This is the case in all polytheistical systems 
in general terms, but the purer ethics so ex¬ 
pressed are generally lost in a selfish and 
evasive casuistry. 

The odious principle of caste is maintained 
in these earlier and purer writings of Hin- 
dooism. According to the Vedas there were 
four castes; first, the Brahmins, or priestly. 
All Brahmins were not necessarily priests, but 
all priests should be Brahmins. The office 
of the priesthood was not one of dignity, 
although it was one of sacredness. This is 
not usually the case in the hierarchy of reli- 

Trinity as derived from this source. Iu a work entitled 
Revelation the Source of all that is Good in other 
Systems, the author of this History has shown that the 
polytheistic theories of remote antiquity derived this tenet 
from primitive revelation, which was obscured and defaced 
by superstition and vain philosophical speculation. 

* Elphinstone, vol. i. ch. iv. * 

f Sacramentum, an oath. 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


33 


Chap. II.] 

gions, but it is so occasionally in other than 
the Brahminical. The Brahmin was inter¬ 
dicted from placing himself on a level with 
the ranks below his own, in a great variety 
of particulars. The austerities prescribed as 
necessary to the religious course of a Brahmin 
were numerous, foolish, and severe. His 
life was divided into four periods, the last 
only was exempt from penances and mortifica¬ 
tions ; constant contemplation was its work. 
The privileges of this order were also very great. 
They alone possessed the right to explain, or 
even read, the Vedas. Under certain restric¬ 
tions the next two classes were allowed their 
perusal. As these books are the source of 
theology, religious light was the prerogative 
of the Brahmin ; being the source of law, the 
judges must belong to the class who alone 
had unrestrained access to them, and the pri¬ 
vilege and power to expound them. All 
sickness being considered as the result of sin, 
the Vedas alone prescribed the proper treat¬ 
ment of the invalid ; the Brahmin was neces¬ 
sarily the only physician. All other classes 
were bound to treat Brahmins with the most 
pious reverence. A Sudra, the lowest class, 
must submit to the most contumelious treat¬ 
ment from them, and feel honoured by any 
notice, even if it consisted in personal chastise¬ 
ment. The Veysias were bound to make pre¬ 
sents to the Brahmins, and see that they wanted 
for nothing; the Kshatryas, to support their 
cause and defend them. For a man of any 
other class to overpower a Brahmin in argu¬ 
ment, subjected him to a fine. To kill a 
Brahmin was an inexpiable sin. Kings were 
bound not to reprove, but to entreat them, 
even when obviously in the wrong. Their 
persons and property were free from impost, 
and if they required anything, none from whom 
they asked it should refuse, “ for to refuse them 
anything is impiety.” If a Brahmin com¬ 
mitted the most heinous offence against the 
law, or against nature, he must not be pun¬ 
ished capitally; yet for the smallest infraction 
of their own caste obligations the heaviest 
penalties were imposed. They had power 
over the gods, and it was dangerous for a 
deity to refuse a Brahmin’s prayer. The 
second order was the Kshatryas, or military 
class. To this kings and governors belonged, 
although not unfrequently in the earlier ages 
these offices were held by men of the first 
class. The Brahmins were jealous of this 
caste, and the jealousy was mutual. The 
third was the Veysias, or merchant class, who 
were bound to devote themselves to trade 
and husbandry. This caste was more nume¬ 
rous than both the former together. The 
fourth was the Sudras, or servile class. These 
were to seek service with a Brahmin, failing 
von. i. 


to obtain which, they were to seek it with a 
Kshatrya or a Veysia, and if able to obtain 
it with none of them, they were to find sub¬ 
sistence as they best could. Elphinstone, 
Capper, and other writers, affirm that the 
condition of villains under the feudal system 
was much worse than that of the Sudra, be¬ 
cause the personal independence and pro¬ 
perty of the latter were secured. But of 
what avail was this recognition when he was 
brought up under the conviction that he had 
no moral right to acquire property; that the 
ambition to do so was sinful; that he was 
born to be a servant, and ought in all things 
to seek conformity to this destiny; and that 
his chief hope of a happy transmigration 
hereafter depended upon fidelity in his service 
to a Brahmin ? No class of human beings 
were ever imbued with so humiliating an 
appreciation of themselves both for time and 
eternity. To submit to all manner of hard 
treatment and contempt was the virtue most 
inculcated upon them; and at every step, 
from the cradle to death, the ceremonials of 
Hindooism stamped the Sudra, spiritually and 
morally, as well as physically and socially, a 
degraded being. The Veda was not to be 
read in his presence, and “ it was pollution to 
teach him its sublime doctrines.” He was to 
be fed with the leavings of his master. Should 
any one kill a Sudra, he was to be fined, or 
undergo a penance, the same in amount or 
degree as if he had killed a dog. Such are 
the doctrines of the much lauded Vedas con¬ 
cerning him; and the constitution of Menu, 
based upon these Vedas, was designed to ren¬ 
der stringent practically every invidious tenet 
of the sacred books. 

There was one peculiarity of his degrada¬ 
tion which perhaps pressed harder on the 
Sudra than all the rest. Members of the 
three superior castes were, at a certain age, 
in virtue of certain ceremonies, invested with 
the sacred cord, upon which occasion they 
were said to be born again. The term, “ a 
twice-born man,” is a generic phrase, which 
comprises members of all castes except that 
of the Sudra. The effect of this distinction 
was to lower the Sudra almost to a level with 
the brute—at all events to place him on the 
verge of the unholy world, to which Hindoo 
sanctity and privilege could not be extended. 
If it did not place him out of the pale of sal¬ 
vation, it was, in the phraseology of certain 
modern bigoted schismatics, to “hand him 
over to the uncovenanted mercies of God.” 

The origin of this custom of the twice 
born is a subject of inquiry very interesting 
to Christians, as the expression occurs in the 
third chapter of St. John’s Gospel, in our 
Lord’s conversation with Nicodemus,—“ Ve- 

F 







84 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II. 


rily, verily, I say unto you, unless a man be 
born again, be cannot enter the kingdom of 
lieaven.” There can be little doubt that the 
idea was derived by the Hindoos from Baby¬ 
lon, whether the theory of Colonel Kennedy 
be correct or erroneous as to their having 
themselves come thence. 

That the doctrine of regeneration of the 
heart by the instrumentality of truth, under 
the gracious influence of God, was a doctrine 
of the patriarchal world, is obvious to all per¬ 
sons acquainted with the Scriptures, however 
ignorant of this tenet the generality of the 
Jews were, even of the better instructed, in 
the days of the Saviour. That Noah taught 
it to his children and their descendants is 
equally plain to the Bible student. But this 
truth, like all others propagated by him, 
became clouded by human speculation. Men, 
wise in their own conceits, became fools, 
“ turned the truth of God into a lie,’” and 
perverted alike the theory and facts of pri¬ 
meval religion. Babylon became the great 
centre of corruption, and the germs of human 
apostasy may all be found in the theogonies 
and philosophies which emanated thence, and 
spread throughout the world. The original 
doctrine of revelation, here noticed, was per¬ 
verted among the rest; that which was spiritual 
in essence and in operation was perverted into 
the mere ceremonial, while to the ceremony 
itself was attributed supernatural power. 

In the Babylonian mysteries the comme¬ 
moration of the Flood, of Noah, and of the 
Ark, was mingled with idolatrous worship. 
Noah was deified under the titles of Saturn, 
Osiris, or Janus, “ the god of gods,” in most 
of the early nations. In Babylon all this had 
its birth. Noah, as having lived in two 
worlds, was called Dephnes, or “ twice born.” 
It was believed that all who went through 
the prescribed ceremonial would become like 
Noah—regenerate, made anew, made righ¬ 
teous by the process through which they 
passed — “twice born.”* Humboldt and 
Prescott found this idea prevailing in Mexico 
as it prevailed at Babylon. There would 
be no difficulty in tracing it through all the 
superstitions of nations, as an original doc¬ 
trine of revelation perverted to pagan pur¬ 
poses. 

It is not necessary to dwell further upon 
the ancient religion of the Vedas, and the 
Institutions of Menu; for although in these 

* la a work entitled the Moral Identity of Babylon 
and Rome, the author mentions that the name Shinar, 
given to Babylon in the Scriptures, is expressive of this 
idea. Read without points, Shinar is Shenor, which he 
derives from shene, to repent, and noer, childhood. 
“The land of Shinar” is thus made “the laud of rege¬ 
neration.” 


j rests the basis of Hindooism, that religious 
system became greatly modified through the 
lapse of so vast a period of time as has 
passed since the Book of Menu developed, 
and, as it were, consolidated, the laws and 
tenets of the older writings. 

The simple polytheism of the Vedas, which 
was itself a corruption of the primitive doc¬ 
trine of God, became clouded and polluted by 
innumerable superstitions, and, except in the 
institution of caste, the Hindoo religion of 
the present day bears but little resemblance 
to that of the age of the Vedas or of Menu. 
Even caste is not maintained in its primitive 
simplicity. As the doctrines became less 
pure, the ritual became more strict: prayers, 
penances, sacrifices, increased with the num¬ 
ber of the gods; and the rigidity of caste, in 
,certain ceremonial acts, became more stern 
as the morality upon which it professedly 
rested ceased to be observed with primitive 
exactness. 

The deterioration of the Hindoo religion 
was gradual. From the personification of 
the elements, the people descended to the 
representation of the personifications in works 
of human skill. They made to themselves 
the likeness of things in the heavens above, 
the earth beneath, and the waters under the 
earth; they bowed down to them, and wor¬ 
shipped them, until the thing represented 
was itself lost sight of in the visible emblem. 
The images themselves were made more and 
more grotesque, hideous, and absurd, as the 
imagination became less pure, the understand¬ 
ing less vigorous, and the moral purpose less 
determinate. The grossness of the image 
re-acted upon the ideal of the deities, until 
the satire of Augustine upon another people 
became applicable — “ The same gods are 
adored in the temple, and laughed at in the 
theatre.” Hindooism sunk from its philoso¬ 
phical and theistical speculations to a filthy 
and sanguinary idolatry. Nothing became 
too mean out of which to make a god, and no 
conception was too hideous as the ideal of its 
fabrication. In the shaded groves of that 
bright land—by the retired inlets of its roll¬ 
ing rivers—on the shores of every placid 
and silent lake—within the public and sump¬ 
tuous temple and the retired and picturesque 
sanctuary—stand the frightful forms of innu¬ 
merable gods, before whose presence licen¬ 
tious orgies, self-torture, and human sacrifice, 
are no less acts of devotion than meaningless 
forms, mutterings, and ablutions. Hindooism 
has had its apologists, even among modern his¬ 
torians of reputation (for what form of apos¬ 
tasy has not its apologists among the learned 
and the great?); but the religion of modern 
Hindooism is no better, and in many respects 



Chap. II.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


35 


much worse, than the forms of idolatry against 
which the anathema of sacred Scripture is 
pronounced, and to it as well as to them the 
curse of Jehovah goes forth—“Confounded 
he they who serve graven images, that boast 
themselves of idols.” 

The deterioration of Hindooismis strikingly 
marked in the writings of the Paranas. The 
Brahmins profess to believe, and the mass of 
the people really do believe, that the Paranas 
were written by the authors of the Yedas. 
Evidence is not wanting to prove that they 
are the productions of various periods, some 
of these writings being scarcely three hundred 
years old, although others may possibly be a 
thousand. These books were, however, the 
arrangement and embodiment of the popular 
belief. The corruptions formed material for 
the Paranas. These too faithfully reflected 
the general opinion, not to be received with 
popular favour. The causes which produced 
the general declension of religion are thus 
ingeniously set forth by Dr. Cooke Taylor:— 
“ The simple and primitive form of worship 
was succeeded in some remote and unknown 
age by the adoration of images and types, 
and of historical personages elevated to the 
rank of divinities, which swelled into the 
most cumbrous body of legend and mythology 
to be found in any pagan nation.* It is pro¬ 
bable that the religious revolution was the 
work of the poets; the story of the Rama 
Yana, and the Mhaha Bharrat, turns wholly 
upon the doctrine of incarnation, all the lead¬ 
ing personages being incarnate gods, demi¬ 
gods, and celestial spirits. We know that a 
similar change was wrought in ancient Greece 
by Homer and Hesiod, for previous to the 
appearance of their theogonies the objects of 
worship were the Titans, who were properly 
elementary deities, like the gods of the Asiatic 
nations. The legends which now constitute 
the Hindoo mythology are collected in the 
Paranas, works believed to have been written 
or compiled in the tenth century of our era, 
when the original religion had been corrupted, 
and the ancient system of civilisation had 
fallen into decay.” It is remarkable that the 
best things under heaven become the worst 
when abused. No arts have contributed so 
much to the solace and civilisation of man 
as poetry, painting, sculpture, and music,—and 
these have been the grand instruments in 
creating and sustaining idolatrous systems. 
It may, however, be doubted whether his 

* The Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone denies that the 
number of gods accepted by the orthodox Hindoos is by 
any means so numerous as is generally represented, and 
accounts for the misapprehension. It is doubtful whether 
the gods and the legends of Greece and Rome were not 
more numerous than those of India. 


love of classic analogy did not lead the learned 
doctor to attribute too great an influence to 
the poets of the Hindoos. At all events, the 
Paranas depict faithfully the religion of 
heathen Hindoostan, and the study of these 
writings, and of the worship and opinion of 
the people, presents a religion which only in 
some of its fundamental ideas resembles the 
ancient faith of the Vedas. 

The present system of Hindoo religion is 
glaringly polytheistic and idolatrous. In the 
progress from early polytheism it would 
appear that three principle deities engaged 
the popular worship—Brahma, Vishnu, and 
Siva. The first is the Creator, the second 
the Preserver, the third the Destroyer. Al¬ 
though Vishnu is second in the order of the 
triad, he was before Brahma in order of being. 
Vishnu, the Preserver, slept upon the face of 
the waters which submerged the ruins of a 
former world. While thus in repose, a lotus 
sprang from his body, from which Brahma, 
the Creator, was produced. He created the 
elements and the world, and, among his other 
great works, produced Siva, the Destroyer, 
and the race of man. From his head he 
created the Brahmins (sacerdotal and noble); 
from his arms, the Kshatrvas (warriors ); 
from his thighs, the Veysias (merchants); 
from his feet, the Sudras (labourers). Brahma 
is but little reverenced, Vishnu and Siva re¬ 
ceiving the-worship formerly paid to the whole 
triad. Brahma is represented with four 
heads, on each a mitre resembling that worn 
by a Latin or rather Greek prelate. He has 
four hands, in one of which is held a spoon, 
in another a string of beads, in the third a 
water-jug, and in the fourth the sacred Vedas. 
His image is painted in golden and Vermillion 
colours. Vishnu is generally figured as re¬ 
posing on a lotus, or on the many-headed 
serpent Amanta (Eternity). His image is 
painted of some dark colour or black. Siva, 
although in the unamiable character of a 
destroyer, is a greater god than those from 
whom he sprang. Eternity (Maha Kali) is, 
however, represented as his conqueror. He 
is depicted upon a throne, or riding on the 
bull Nandi, and painted in white or bright 
colours. His image is occasionally made 
with five heads, but more generally with one 
head, having three eyes, the third in the 
centre of the forehead. These eyes sym¬ 
bolically express his omniscience—time past, 
present, and future, being open to his glance. 
These deities.have had various incarnations 
and manifestations, are the subjects of many 
absurd legends, and the parents of numerous 
offspring of gods and men. Siva is most 
generally represented with his consort Par- 
vadi, who was a very warlike lady or divinity. 











36 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II. 


having encountered and killed a great giant, 
and performed many other exploits equally 
bellicose. 

In the doctrines of the triad there is evi¬ 
dently a vague conception of the original 
doctrine of a Trinity in Unity. In the early 
ages of apostasy, after the Deluge, Noah and 
his three sons were transformed into the su¬ 
preme being, and a triune offspring. The story 
of Vishnu, the Preserver, resting on the fa'ce 
of the waters, after the destruction of a pre¬ 
vious world, when Brahma, the Creator, came 
forth, is evidently a tradition of the Scripture 
passage—The Spirit of God moved upon 
the face of the waters,” when creation came 
forth from the chaos of a previous state. 
With that tradition is mixed up the story of 
Noah in the Ark floating upon the Deluge 
above the wreck of the submerged world, and 
coming out of the Ark to re-people and re¬ 
plenish the earth. The serpent-throne of 
the god is a vague traditionary notion of the 
great serpent of Paradise, over whom the pro¬ 
mised seed was ordained to triumph ; the ser¬ 
pent, first dreaded, became at last worshipped. 

Many of the other gods were, in earlier ages, 
only different forms and names of these three 
gods, but came at last to be regarded as sepa¬ 
rate deities. Thus, the Preserver, Vishnu, en¬ 
throned on the lotus leaf, and floating on the 
troubled seas, is represented under another 
name, as part man, part fish, the same attri¬ 
butes being attributed to him. 

There is in all this, additional proof of the 
Chaldee origin of the Indian polytheism. In 
the Babylonian triune God, the three persons 
were—the Eternal Father, the Spirit of God 
incarnate in a human mother, and a Divine 
Son, the fruit of that incarnation. 

Many of the legends concerning the other 
gods mix up ideas of the first promise in 
Eden with the earliest forms of Babylonian 
polytheism. Thus, Surya, or the Sun, is 
represented- as becoming incarnate for the 
purpose of subduing the enemies of the gods, 
who must be subdued, according to the divine 
destinies, by one human born. The Baby¬ 
lonian polytheism made Taumuz the god in¬ 
carnate, the Child of the Sun, the great 
object of Babylonian homage. 

The form of half-man, half-fish, is precisely 
that of the Dagon of the Philistines, and the 
origin of that god was Babylonian. Bunsen, 
in his Egypt, quotes Barossus, the Chaldean 
historian, to show that the worship of this 
deity was founded upon a legend, that when 
men were very barbarous, there came up a 
beast from the Red Sea, half man, half fish, 
that civilised the Babylonians, taught them 
arts and sciences, and instructed them in 
politics and religion. 


The queen-wife of Vishnu is also wor¬ 
shipped under the name of Lakshmi. Her 
worship and her name are supposed by cer¬ 
tain antiquarians and philologists to be of 
Chaldean origin. 

The worship of a woman as a great queen 
pervades all early polytheistic nations. This 
is traced to Semiramis, the Queen of Nim¬ 
rod, the first great conqueror. It is main¬ 
tained by a writer of great ability that, as 
Shemir is the Persian name of Semiramis, 
and Lhaka means beautiful, Lhakshmi means 
“ the beautiful Shemir,” or Semiramis. It is 
remarkable that the services of the Babylonian 
Shemir were conducted without sacrifices ; 
her worshippers poured out drink-offerings, 
burnt incensfe, and offered cakes before her. 
This is the precise character of the services 
to the great Indian goddess.* 

There is a god Rama, who is the offspring 
of Vishnu, and was King of Oude, an historical 
personage, who is by many of his worshippers 
confounded with Vishnu, or declared to be an 
incarnation of that god. Rama had a son, 
Chrishna, who is the favourite deity of modern 
Hindooism. He is the boy-god of India. 
This is plainly another version of the Baby¬ 
lonian god Taumuz. 

The doctrine that the seed of the woman 
should bruise the head of the serpent, taught 
by Noah and his offspring, inspired the ambi¬ 
tion of the infamous but beautiful and intel¬ 
lectual Semiramis to set up her son Taumuz 
as that promised seed, who became worshipped 
through her influence and his own exploits, 
and finally the mother, as well as the son, were 
made objects of adoration. That is the pro¬ 
bable origin of the confused traditions of every 
ancient land, leading them to set up some beau¬ 
tiful ideal queen as the object of worship, and 
her son the incarnation of the supreme deity, 
the deliverer of gods and men, as also to be 
adored. It is the kernel-thought of primi¬ 
tive apostasy—the great blasphemy which 
runs through all heathen religions—the delu¬ 
sion which Satan has propagated and kept up 
to divert men from the doctrine of the true 
Messiah. Even the Jews were denounced by 
the prophets for wandering into this all-pre¬ 
valent oriental idolatry. That the children 
gathered the sticks, and the women baked 
cakes to offer to the queen of heaven—that 
all classes joined in her adoration on occasion 
of a very general apostasy to this idolatry, is. 
the complaint of the great prophet of the 
Hebrews. The picture is a fair portrait of 
the people of India at this day. 

It would require more space than can be 
afforded in this work, to describe at greater 

* “ No sanguinary sacrifices are offered."—C olzuan’s 
Asiatic Researches. 




Chap. II.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


37 


length the objects of idolatrous worship in 
India. Let it suffice to say, that while Colonel 
Kennedy, in his researches, recounts seven¬ 
teen chief gods, and admits that the lesser 
ones are legion, some have ventured to 
affirm that 3,000,000 deities are worshipped. 

Amongst the material terrestrial objects 
adored, the river Ganges has the chief place. 
Its waters cleanse from sin, and sanctify many 
dubious deeds. The chief doctrines treat of 
the modes by which the gods are to be ap¬ 
peased and worshipped, which are innume¬ 
rable and horrible. All conceivable methods of 
self-inflicted torture are deemed necessary or 
desirable. The devotee will sit in a particular 
posture, with uplifted arm, until it stiffens 
and remains fixed; the hands are clenched 
and pressed until the nails grow through the 
flash; hooks are placed in the muscles of 
the hack, and the wretched sufferer is swung 
round with fearful rapidity, by ropes from 
poles fixed at a suitable elevation. 

The world beyond the grave is portrayed 
in a manner calculated to affect the oriental 
imagination with supreme terror or delight. 
Each chief god has a heaven for his especial 
votaries—some are composed of gold and 
precious stones; and all the attributes of 
wealth and grandeur await the beatified. 
Others are fields of flowers, where pellucid 
waters roll through the fairy land ; fragrant 
airs breathe eternal perfumes ; light beams 
with unclouded glory, but with no fervid 
ray ; exulting multitudes witness the achiev- 
ments of gods and genii, and behold their 
enemies chased through worlds of despair by 
pursuers, whose looks and instruments of 
vengeance inspire immortal terror. By trans¬ 
migrations in certain successions the spirits 
of the departed are blessed or punished ; 
some are at last assimilated to the divinity, 
while others, losing all consciousness of a 
separate existence from deity, live and move 
and have their being in him. The most 
horrible acts of cruelty are deemed acceptable 
to God, even self-immolation. Thus the 
Hindoo mother leaves her female child by 
the waters of the Ganges, to be devoured by 
the alligators, or borne away by the rising 
waters. The contempt for female life, com¬ 
mon to all superstitious creeds, uncivilised 
countries, and nations which, although having 
attained a high civilisation of circumstance, 
have a low civilisation of feeling, enables the 
Hindoo woman to forget her maternity, and 
tear from her bosom that which had its being 
there, to leave it to perish by the dark river 
and beneath the solitary heaven. Aged rela¬ 
tives, felt to be a burden, are, in their sick¬ 
ness, doomed to a similar fate. 

The East India Company, by its humane 


exertions and authority, has succeeded in 
suppressing infanticide, and desertion of the 
sick and the aged; but their interference in 
the cause of humanity excited the super¬ 
stitious animosity of the various castes. 

The most terrible of all the religious cruel¬ 
ties of India is the Suttee. The poet Camp¬ 
bell has described this barbarous custom in a 
single couplet— 

“ The widowed Indian, when her lord expires, 

Mounts the dread pile, and braves the l'uneral fires.” 

An eminent writer thus notices this prac¬ 
tice :—“ Of the modes adopted by the Hin¬ 
doos of sacrificing themselves to the divine 
powers, none however has more excited the 
attention of the Europeans than the burning 
of the wives on the funeral piles of their 
husbands. To this cruel sacrifice the highest 
virtues are ascribed. ‘ The wife who com¬ 
mits herself to the flames with her husband’s 
corpse, shall equal Arundhati, and reside in 
Swarga ; accompanying her husband, she shall 
reside so long in Swarga as are the thirty- 
five millions of hairs on the human body. As 
the snake-catcher forcibly drags the serpent 
from his earth, so, bearing her husband from 
hell, with him she shall enjoy the delights of 
heaven while fourteen Indras reign. If her 
husband had killed a Brahmana, broken the 
ties of gratitude, or murdered his friend, she 
expiates the crime.’ Though the widow has 
the alternative of leading a life of chastity, of 
mortification, denied to the pleasures of dress, 
never sleeping on a bed, never exceeding one 
meal a day, nor eating any other than simple 
food, it is held her duty to burn herself along 
with her husband.”* 

This atrocity is not to be supposed as 
confined to the ignorant. “ The Hindoo legis¬ 
lators,” says Mr. Colebrooke, “ have shown 
themselves disposed to encourage this barba¬ 
rous sacrifice.” 

The institutes of Akbar were translated 
under the patronage of the Honourable East 
India Company, and they contain the follow¬ 
ing passage :—“ If the deceased leaves a son, 
he sets fire to the pile, otherwise his younger 
brother, or also his elder brother. All his 
wives embrace the corpse, and notwithstand¬ 
ing their relations advise them against it, 
expire in the flames with the greatest cheer¬ 
fulness. A Hindoo wife who is burnt with 
her husband, is either actuated by motives of 
real affection, or she thinks it her duty to 
conform to custom, or she consents to avoid 
reproach, or else she is forced to it by her 
relations. If the wife be pregnant at the 
time of her husband’s death, she is not allowed 
to burn till after her delivery. If he dies on 

* Mill’s India, vol. i. pp. 274, 275. Quarto edition. 









38 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II. 


a journey, the wives burn themselves along 
with his clothes, or anything else that be¬ 
longed to him. Some women who have been 
prevailed upon by their relations, or have 
persuaded themselves against burning with 
the corpse, have found themselves so un- 
happy, that they have cheerfully submitted 
to expire on the flames before the next 
day." 

The East India Company has succeeded 
in nearly suppressing Suttee in their terri¬ 
tory, but in several of the native states it is 
still, to a limited extent, practised. This 
interposition excited much opposition on the 
part of the natives; but success followed. 
Their noble exertions deserve the application 
of the poet’s words— 

“ Children of Brahma! then was mercy nigh 
To wash the stain of blood’s eternal dye ? 

Did peace descend to triumph and to save, 

When free-born Britons cross the Indian wave ? ”* 

Whatever the faults or errors of our Indian 
administration, these beautiful lines are appro¬ 
priate. So far as India is rescued from her¬ 
self, from her own sins, and laws, and customs, 
and religious rites, it was well for her that 
Britons crossed the Indian wave. No evil of 
temporary misgovernment is a feather in the 
scale against the ponderous crimes and op¬ 
pressions of the native creed and custom. 
The words of the prophet may be truly ad¬ 
dressed to the people of India as they were 
of old to Israel-—“ The prophets prophecy 
falsely, and the priests bear rule by their 
means, and the people will have it so, saith 
the Lord of Hosts.” 

The services of Juggernaut are attended 
by terrible immolations. All the battles 
fought by England in Hindoostan, or for 
Hindoostan, could not furnish returns of slain 
equal to those crushed beneath the ponderous 
car of this horrid idol. It has many shrines, 
but the principal one is at Orissa. On occa¬ 
sion of the festival the god is drawn forth—a 
colossal idol thirty feet high: men, women, 
and children, yoke themselves to the heavy- 
car upon which it is placed, shouting with 
frantic fanaticism. Many, alas! also fling 
themselves beneath the huge wheels, and are 
crushed in an instant to death, their blood 
and brains being scattered upon the surviv¬ 
ing devotees, whose maniacal devotions are 
rendered more fanatical and exulting by the 
sanguinary scene. Surely the philosophy of 
sacred Scripture is vindciated in the History 
of India—“ The dark places of the earth are 
the abodes of cruelty.” 

The extravagance of rich devotees on 
occasions of the public festivals is incre¬ 
dible : a wealthy native has been known to 
* Campbell. 


expend as much as £20,000. It is not un¬ 
common for these feasts to cost men of pro¬ 
perty at least £1000. The feast of the 
goddess Durga Parja is one of expensive 
magnificence. 

As is the case with all superstitious reli¬ 
gions, the fanaticism of the people is kept up 
by men who either profit by being entirely 
set apart for religious services, or give them¬ 
selves wholly up to such, under the impres¬ 
sion of thereby securing their own salvation. 
Men of this sort blend infatuation with impos¬ 
ture, and, with the assumption of superior 
spirituality, display carnal feelings and per¬ 
secuting animosities. What the Celtic Irish 
call voteens (small and contemptible devotees) 
abound in India, and do much to infuriate 
the zealotry of the people, to sow sedition, 
and, by their idleness, mendicity, filth, and 
horrid personal exposures, to demoralise and 
impoverish the poorer classes. The fakeers, 
by submission to extraordinary penances, by 
which they are maimed, crippled, and other¬ 
wise deformed, are regarded by the people as 
persons of peculiar sanctity. They live by 
begging, and carry disease and infection with 
them throughout the country. 

There are various monastic orders con¬ 
nected with the temples and services of par¬ 
ticular gods. These orders are regarded as 
circles of holiness, and their members as en¬ 
dowed with peculiar sanctity. They are a 
curse to the country, and do more to promote 
the common degradation than any other class 
or cause, always excepting the institution of 
caste. There is no visible head of the Hindoo 
religion, nor are there always chiefs or prin¬ 
cipals of the monastic institutions. In some 
cases there are leaders or presidents, who 
maintain their position by prescriptive right. 

It is common for members of the order to 
shave the head in a manner similar to the 
monks of Europe. The Buddhists (a sect to 
be noticed hereafter) are especially noted for 
this observance. The origin of the usage 
was purely Babylonian. It was the symbol 
of inauguration of those who were thus 
shaven in the priesthood of Bacchus, the son 
of the queen of heaven. The high priest of 
“ the mysteries ” was a tonsured personage. 
From the Babylonians other oriental peoples 
of antiquity derived it. Thus, it is related 
by an ancient historian that “ the Arabians 
acknowledge no other gods than Bacchus and 
Urania,* and they say that their hair is cut 
in the same way as Bacchus’s is cut; they 
cut it in a circular form, shaving it around 
the temples.” •[ The priests of Osiris, the 
Egyptian Bacchus, were also distinguished 

* The mother of Bacchus. 

f Herodotus, lib. iii. 6. 



Crap.- II.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


no 


bv tliis tonsure.* Tbe custom was cer¬ 
tainly imported into India with the same 
ideas. When the usage began to be ob¬ 
served it is not easy, perhaps not possible, to 
trace, but Gotama Buddha, the founder of 
the sect or religion of the Buddhists, is repre¬ 
sented as having more strictly enjoined it 
than others. It is not confined to his fol¬ 
lowers ; but one of the Paranas, or new Indian 
scriptures, thus writes of Buddha and his 
followers :—“ The shaved head, that he might 
the better perform the orders of Vishnu, 
formed a number of disciples, and of shaved 
heads like himself.” This circle was intended 
to represent the sun, and the seed of the pro¬ 
mise—the sun, or light incarnate. The hope 
of the promised seed was, as shown on a 
former page, thus blasphemously used by 
Semiramis and her abettors, to make of her 
son the fulfilment of that prophecy, and to 
have him deified. The following by a popu¬ 
lar writer in the British Messenger, places 
the origin of the Hindoo tonsure in its true 
light, and serves to illustrate what is written 
in this chapter concerning the Babylonish 
origin of the practices as well as doctrines of 
the Hindoo religion:—“ It can be shown that 
among the Chaldeans the one term ‘Zero’ 
signifies at once ‘a circle’ and ‘the seed.’ 
Suro, ‘the seed’ in India, was the sun divi¬ 
nity incarnate. When that ‘ seed’ was repre¬ 
sented in human form, to identify him with 
the sun, he was represented with the circle, 
the well-known emblem of the sun’s annual 
course, on some part of his person. Thus, 
our own god Thor was represented with a 
blazing circle on his breast. In Persia and 
Assyria the sun-god was marked out nearly 
in the same way. In India the circle is 
represented at the tip of his finger. Hence 
‘ the circle ’ became the emblem of Taumuz, 
or ‘ the seed,’ and therefore was called by the 
same name, ‘ Zero.’ Moreover, b} r a marvellous 
providence, the circle is still called by the 
same name in everyday speech among our¬ 
selves ; for what is Zero, the cipher, but just 
a circle ? This name Zero has indubitably 
Come to us from the Arabians, who again 
derived it from the Chaldeans, the original 
cultivators at once of idolatry, astronomy, and 
arithmetic. The circular tonsure of Bacchus 
was doubtless intended to point him out as 
‘ Zero,’ or ‘ the seed,’ the Grand Deliverer; 
and the circle of light round the head of 
the so-called pictures of Christ was evi¬ 
dently just a different form of the very same 
thing, and borrowed from the very same 
source.” 

In few respects is the degeneracy of the 
Hindoo religion more seen than in the multi- 
* Macrobius, Saturnalia , lib. i. cap. 23. 


plication of castes. According to the Vedas, 
as already shown, there were but four castes, 
The members of these different classes, as 
Mr. Elphinstone prefers to call them, inter¬ 
married, and questions of nice casuistry began 
to arise as to what class the offspring of these 
marriages belonged. Hence new castes arose, 
and these were multiplied as human pride 
and exclusiveness found scope, until trade 
castes were established, and men were here¬ 
ditarily confined to the calling of their an¬ 
cestors, however special and peculiar those 
callings. Thus, water-carriers are to remain 
water-carriers, and grass-cutters to continue 
grass-cutters, from father to son for ever. 
The ceremonies, abstinences, privileges, and 
disqualifications peculiar to each are so 
numerous, that to state and explain them, 
trace their origin, and mark their effects, 
would fill a volume as large as one of those 
devoted to this History. The Brahmins de¬ 
clare that the other three classes have become 
extinct from various causes, but this the others 
refuse to admit; even the Sudras are desirous 
to maintain the purity of their derivation 
from the original servile Sudra stock. 

Mohammedanism has been a means of 
breaking up old castes, and introducing new 
ones. The English and other foreigners, 
even when most unwilling to interfere with 
the national customs, have, by the introduc¬ 
tion of new habits, wants, and ideas, influ¬ 
enced the process of caste revolution. But 
however broken up by internal changes or 
foreign influences, the thing still lives; like 
the severed worm, each part has its own vita¬ 
lity, whatever repugnance to the beholder 
is excited by the process of the phenome¬ 
non. The more the tree of caste is “ slipped,” 
the wider its kind extends, however diversi¬ 
fied the qualities of the various shoots. With 
all its corruptions, dismemberment, and con¬ 
fusion, the caste system of Hindoostan, as to 
its spirit, and prejudice, and moral mischief, 
is as potent and persistent as ever. The pre¬ 
scribed calling of the several castes has not 
provided its members with uniform subsist¬ 
ence, and manjr are glad to find an oppor¬ 
tunity of exercising skill or labour in avoca¬ 
tions ceremonially beneath them. Even the 
mean and proud Brahmins, who considered 
labour degrading, and begging sacred and 
respectable, now follow various professions 
and trades, and are to be found in the ranks 
of the common soldiers, in the service of the 
company and of native chiefs. The Sudras 
have in many cases become respectable occu¬ 
piers of land; very many of them are mer¬ 
chants and officials; and in the Mahratta 
states they espouse the warrior class, where 
generals and rajahs are often of the Sudras 









40 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chat. II. 


caste. In the Bombay army they are often 
enlisted in the ranks. 

The Gosayens, and other orders of monas- 
ticism, are supplanting the Brahmins in their 
influence over the people in the Gangetic 
provinces. In fact, it is as in the middle 
ages in Europe, when the regular almost 
deposed the secular clergy in their influence 
over the consciences of individuals and the 
affairs of families. It must not be supposed 
that the influence of the Brahmins has much 
declined; their spiritual influence has, but 
their caste precedence is still maintained by 
themselves, and recognised by all others. 
The Rajpoots and Mahrattas regard them 
with less respect than they are regarded 
elsewhere. 

Bo sternly, however, are the requisitions 
of caste maintained at the present time, 
that a general officer, famed through the 
world for his deeds of policy and arms, has, 
in private conversation, assured the author of 
this History that he has seen the Brahmin 
dash away his cooking apparatus, and his 
untasted meal, because an unfortunate Sudra 
happened to be ordered to perform some 
military duty within an uncanonical proximity 
to the spot. 

The loss of caste is the most terrible thing 
known to the Brahmin. It is temporal and 
eternal death in some cases; it is in all cases 
legal and civil death. The evidence of such 
a man cannot be received; his property is 
confiscated; his parents, children, and wife, 
must repudiate him, or be subjected to 
penalties the heaviest that can be conceived 
by Hindoo imagination. Loss of caste may 
in most cases be expiated, but in some it 
cannot. 

The number of castes now existing it would 
be impossible to tell. In the Asiatic Re¬ 
searches estimates of different writers are 
given, but these are contradictory and un¬ 
reliable. They have increased to a very 
great number, although the four original 
classes may be said to comprise genericallv 
all the species into which caste is divided. 
Among them all the same oppressive or 
abject spirit prevails, according to the ex¬ 
tent of their debasement. The interests of 
the-many are sacrificed to the prejudices of 
the few. Inexorable tyranny is met by 
reptile-like deceit and treachery. Supersti¬ 
tions, changing in everything else, are immu¬ 
table in their cruelty and darkness. Such 
are the effects of caste. In some cases per¬ 
sonal slavery is engendered by it. Accord¬ 
ing to the Vedas and the Institutions of 
Menu, and. probably, even in accordance 
with the Paranas, all castes are free, so far 
as personal freedom is concerned, and the 


legal right to offer their services to whom¬ 
soever they please, but, practically, men of 
the Sudra class in some places are subjected 
to bondage. In the south of India there are, 
or were until lately, predial slaves. In some of 
the mountain and forest districts Elphinstone 
records that, in 1849, there were bondsmen. 
It is tolerably certain that there are such 
now. Some years earlier they were still more 
numerous in the south of India. A gentle¬ 
man well acquainted with Madras and Bom¬ 
bay says —“ There are six sorts of Chemurs, 
or slaves, like the Pariar of Madras, and 
no other caste is bought or sold in Malabar. 
They are said to have been caught and 
domesticated by Parasu Rama, for the use of 
the Brahmins, and are probably the descend¬ 
ants of the aborigines conquered by the Chola 
kings, and driven into the jungles, but at last 
compelled to prefer slavery and rice to free¬ 
dom and starvation. They are generally, but 
not always, sold with the land, two slaves 
being reckoned equal to four buffaloes; they 
are also let out and pledged. Their pay is 
an allowance of rice and cloth. They some¬ 
times run away, but never shake off their 
servile condition; and if reclaimed, the chil¬ 
dren they may have had during their wan¬ 
dering are divided between the old master 
from whom they fled and the new one to 
whom they resorted.” This description 
would suit the subject of the social condition 
of India as fitly as the religious, but so closely 
are the religious and social conditions of every 
people associated, that the characteristics of 
the latter may be predicated from a know¬ 
ledge of the former. Caste is at once a reli¬ 
gious and social institution; it is at one and 
the same time an exhibition of religious doc¬ 
trine, and its practical social effect. 

The same careful writer describes the 
Cuniun, or Cunishun, as a caste of Malabar, 
whose profession is astrology; “ besides,” he 
relates, “ they make umbrellas, and cultivate 
the earth. In many parts of India the astro¬ 
loger, or wise man, whatever his caste may 
be, is called Cunishun. They are of so low 
a caste, that if a Cuniun come within twenty- 
four feet of a Brahmin, the latter must purify 
himself by prayer and ablution. They are 
said to possess powerful mantras (charms) 
from fragments of the fourth Veda, which is 
usually alleged to be lost. The towns along 
the sea-coast are chiefly inhabited by Mop- 
lays, who were originally imported from 
Arabia, and probably have traded to the Red 
Sea since the time of Alexander the Great. 
They were early converted to the Moham¬ 
medan faith, and are fanatics; yet they have 
retained or adopted many original Malabar 
customs, which seem at variance with the 



'Chap. II.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


41 


maxima of ine Prophet. They are cunning 
traders, desperate robbers, serve as irregular 
infantry, possess land, and turn tbeir bands 
to anything. They hate the Hindoo idolaters, 
and are reciprocally detested. The Tiars 
and Mucuars are very industrious classes— 
the first on shore, and the latter afloat—as 
boat and fishermen; there are no weavers or 
manufacturers deserving of notice.” 

These glimpses of Hindooism, penetrating 
by its caste influence a circle of religionists 
who hate idolatry, strikingly illustrate how 
adapted caste is to the tyranny, pride, mean¬ 
ness, and servility which are curiously blended 
in the native mind, and how ingeniously the 
social theory of the Hindoo religion was 
formed to harmonise with the psychological 
and habitual sympathy of the Hindoo race. 
Mr. Hamilton, in his description of the castes 
of Malabar, gives the following graphic and 
particular account:— 

“ The region of Malabar being intersected 
by many rivers, and bounded by the sea and 
high mountains, presented so many obstacles 
to invaders, that it escaped subjugation by 
the Mohammedans until it was attacked by 
Hyder, in 1766; the original manners and 
customs of the Hindoos have consequently 
been preserved in greater purity than in most 
parts of India. The other inhabitants of this 
province are Moplays (or Mohammedans), 
Christians, and Jews; but their number col¬ 
lectively is inferior to that of the Hindoos, 
some of' whose most remarkable manners, 
customs, and institutions, shall be here de¬ 
scribed. 

“ The rank of caste on the Malabar coast 
is as follows :— 

“ First. Namburies, or Brahmins. 

“ Second. The Nairs, of various denomi¬ 
nations. 

“ Third. The Teers, or Tiars, who are cul¬ 
tivators of the land, and freemen. 

“ Fourth. The Malears, who are musicians 
and conjurors, and also freemen. 

“ Fifth. The Poliars, who are slaves, or 
bondsmen, and attached to the soil. 

“ The system of distances to be observed 
by these castes is specified below :— 

“1. A Nair may approach, but must not 
touch a Brahmin. A Tiar must remain 
thirty yards off. A Poliar ninety-six steps 
off. 

“2. A Tiar is to remain twelve steps dis¬ 
tant from a Nair. A Malear three or four 
steps further. A Poliar ninety-six steps. 

“3 A Malear may approach, but not touch 
a Tiar. 

“ 4. A Poliar is not to come near even to 
a Malear, or to any other caste. If he wishes 
to speak to a Brahmin, Nair, Tiar, or Malear, 

VOL. i. 


he must stand at the above prescribed dis¬ 
tance, and cry aloud to them. If a Poliar 
touch a Brahmin, the latter must make expia¬ 
tion by immediately bathing, reading much 
of the divine books, and changing his Brah- 
minical thread. If a Poliar touch a Nair, or 
any other caste, bathing is sufficient. In 
some parts of the province Churmun is a 
term applied to slaves in general, whatever 
their caste be, but it is in some other parts 
confined peculiarly to Poliars. Even among 
these wretched creatures the pride of caste 
has full influence; and if a Poliar be touched 
by another slave of the Pariar tribe, he is 
defiled, and must wash his head, and pray. 

“ The Parian, in the plural Pariar, belong 
to a tribe of Malabar below all caste, all of 
whom are slaves. 

“ In Malabar the Pariars acknowledge the 
superiority even of the Niadis, but pretend to 
be higher than two other races. This tribe 
eat carrion, and even beef, so that they are 
looked upon as equally impure with the Mo¬ 
hammedans and Christians. 

“ The Niadis are an outcast tribe, common 
in Malabar, but not numerous. They are 
reckoned so very impure, that even a slave 
of caste will not touch them. They have 
some miserable huts, built under trees, but 
they generally wander about in companies of 
ten or twelve, keeping a little distance from 
the roads, and when they see any passenger 
they set up a howl like dogs that are hungry. 
Those who are moved by compassion lay 
down what they are inclined to bestow, and 
go away; the Niadis afterwards approach, 
and pick up what has been left. They have 
no marriage ceremony, but one man and one 
woman always associate together. They kill 
tortoises, and sometimes alligators, both of 
which they eat, and consider most excellent 
food. 

“The Brahmins here are both fewer in 
number, and less civilised, than in the other 
provinces of India south of the Krishna. 
They subsist by agriculture, priestcraft, and 
other devices, but are not employed as 
revenue servants, this being probably the 
only province of the south where the Brah¬ 
mins do not keep the accounts. 

“ The next most remarkable caste are the 
Nairs, who are the pure Sudras of Malabar, 
and all pretend to be born soldiers, but they 
are of various ranks and professions. The 
highest in rank are the Kirit, or Kirum Nairs, 
who on all public occasions act as cooks, 
which, among Hindoos, is a sure mark of 
transcendent rank, for every person may eat 
food prepared by a person of higher rank 
than himself. The second rank of Nairs are 
more, particularly named Sudras, but the 

o 



42 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II. 


whole acknowledge themselves, and are 
allowed to he, of pure Sudra origin. There 
are altogether eleven ranks of Nairs. This 
caste formed the militia of Malabar, directed 
by the Brahmins, and governed by rajahs, 
before the country was disturbed by foreign 
invasion; their submission to their superiors 
wa 3 great, but they exacted deference with 
an arrogance rarely practised by Hindoos 
in their state of dependence. A Nair was 
expected instantly to cut down a Tiar (culti¬ 
vator) or Mucua (fisherman) who presumed 
to defile him by touching his person; and a 
similar fate awaited a Poliar or Pariar who 
did not turn out of his road as a Nair passed. 
The peculiar deity of the Nair caste is Vishnu, 
but they wear in their forehead the mark of 
Siva. The proper road to heaven they de¬ 
scribe as follows:—The votary must go to 
Benares, and afterwards perform the ceremony 
in commemoration of his deceased ancestors 
at Gaya. He must then take up water from 
the Ganges, and having journeyed over an 
immense space of country, pour it on the 
image of Siva, at Rameswara, in the Straits 
of Ceylon. After this he must visit the 
principal places of pilgrimage—such as Jug¬ 
gernaut, in Orissa, and Tripettv, in the Car¬ 
natic. He must always speak the truth (to a 
native a hard penance), give much charity to 
poor and learned Brahmins, and, lastly, he 
must frequently fast and pray, and be very 
chaste in his conduct.” 

The state of things described in the fore¬ 
going quotations has been modified, so far as 
slavery, personal or predial, is concerned, the 
powerful hand of the East India Company 
having been put forth on behalf of the un¬ 
happy and oppressed; but so far as the spirit 
of caste operates, it is still the same—re¬ 
morseless, vain, and spiritually assuming. 

The influence of this feature of the religion 
of India may be seen perhaps in the cha¬ 
racter of its soldiery as much as in any other 
way. From the pride and exclusiveness of 
caste, it must be obvious that it would prove 
a serious impediment to the good discipline of 
a native army. Mutinies have frequently 
occurred in consequence of the rules of a 
soldier’s duty interfering, or appearing to 
interfere, with the prerogatives and obliga¬ 
tions of caste. The recent revolt of the 
Bengal army had its origin in such a cause. 
It is unnecessary in this place to enter into 
the question whether the greased cartridges 
distributed to the men was the sole cause, or 
whether a Mohammedan conspiracy had not 
existed, which found a fortunate occasion in 
the cartridge question for enlisting the sym¬ 
pathy of the Brahmins. This matter was 
itself sufficient to inflame the bigotry of the 


whole Bengal army, and it ought to have 
been known to the officials that it was 60 . 
Among the prejudices of the Brahmin is a 
conviction that to taste the fat of kine is 
ceremonially unclean, and deprives him of 
caste, although abstinence from it is not 
enforced by the Vedas. The Mussulmen of 
every caste (for the Mohammedans of India 
have to a certain extent adopted the distinc¬ 
tions and rules of caste) regard swine’s flesh 
in the same light. The cartridges distributed 
to the Bengal army were, or, which is the 
same thing in the matter, were supposed to 
be, greased with both these objectionable 
materials, and when the allegation that such 
was the case became known to the troops, 
they revolted, preferring death to loss of 
caste ! 

Many ingenious arguments have been used 
to prove that the objection of the Brahmins 
was assumed rather than real, but it is clear 
to any impartial person that this single cause 
was sufficient for the revolt. The argument 
chiefly used to prove that it was not, is the 
use of these very cartridges by the revolters 
against the British. This admits of two 
replies—first, in all superstitious creeds, that 
which is supposed to be wrong ceremonially, 
and even morally, ceases to be so when the 
church or religion of the devotees is served 
by the infraction; the end sanctifies, or justi¬ 
fies, or at all events excuses the deed. To 
use the unclean cartridge in the service of 
the infidel would be loss of caste—death— 
worse than death; to use it in the name and 
service of religion against the infidel, and 
against the infidel in the very matter of 
an attempt to enforce its use upon the faith¬ 
ful, would expiate the deprivation of caste 
involved, and restore the unwilling delin¬ 
quent: in the one case he would be re¬ 
garded as an apostate, in the other a con¬ 
fessor. But, independent of that reply, there 
is a second—the revolters did not use the 
teeth, nor taste the forbidden thing; they 
used the hand, a less expeditious way of 
loading, but it saved caste. The rules of 
the British service compelled the use of the 
teeth; the soldier could not, therefore, load 
with the regulation cartridge without vio¬ 
lating conscience, which the Honourable East 
India Company promised to respect. The 
sepoy upon whom this violation of conscience 
was enforced, regarded the compact between 
him and the company as broken, and, as a 
persecuted man, he revolted. He was not in 
his own opinion false to his salt, but the 
government was, as he believed, false to 
him. The words of the military regulation 
for loading are as follow:—“ First bring the 
cartridge to the mouth, holding it between 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


43 


Chap. II.] 

tlie forefinger and thumb, with the hall in 
the hand, and bite off the top elbow close to 
the body.” When the suspicions of the sepoys 
had been excited, in consequence of the car¬ 
tridges being greased, General Heresey re¬ 
commended the adaptation of “ a new mode 
of drill,” recommended by Major Boniteux, 
commanding the depot of musketry at Dum 
Dum. His words were, “breaking the car¬ 
tridge with the hand instead of by biting 
it.” * It is remarkable that the native artil¬ 
lerymen never objected to handling the grease 
applied to the gun-wheels. Had there been 
a regulation order for them to put it to their 
teeth or lips, they would have revolted in 
consequence, as certainly as did the infantry, 
and portions of the cavalry, from the like 
cause. It was in sympathy with the infantry 
that the cavalry in some cases, and the artil¬ 
lery in many cases, joined the revolt. The 
artillery made no complaints nor demands, 
and no murmurs were heard among them. 
They joined in the struggle, so far as they 
did join, for the aid of their persecuted 
brethren, as they regarded them, and in 
defence of their religion. 

The mutiny of Vellore, which figures so 
largely in the history of India, was not pro¬ 
voked by a cause so intensely irritating as 
the question of the greased cartridges, and 
yet no one now denies that that revolt w T as 
caused by an apprehension that the govern¬ 
ment desired to tamper with the religion of 
the soldiers. At first the cry of conspiracy 
was raised then as now, but it was soon dis¬ 
sipated, and the language of Professor Wilson 
sets the question outside the circle of argu¬ 
ment :—“ Upon considering, therefore, the 
utter improbability of any combined co-ope¬ 
ration of the Mohammedan princes of the 
Deccan with the sons of Tippoo, the absence 
of all proof of its existence, the extension of 
the discontent to places where no political 
influence in their favour could have been 
exerted, the prevalence of disaffection among 
the Hindoos as well as the Mohammedans, 
and, finally, admitting the entire adequacy of 
the cause to the effect, there can be no reason 
•to seek for any other origin of the mutiny 
than dread of religious change inspired by 
the military orders. Here, however, in fair¬ 
ness to the question of the conversion of the 
natives of India to Christianity, the nature 
of the panic which spread amongst the sepoys 
requires to be candidly appreciated. It is a 
great error to suppose that the people of 
India are so sensitive upon the subject of 
their religion, either Hindoo or Moham- 

* Appendix to Papers, &c., pp. 36—38; Letter from 
the Governor general in Council to the Court of Directors, 
April 8, 1857 ; Mutinies in the East Indies , pp. 3, 4. 


medan, as to suffer no approach of contro¬ 
versy, or to encounter adverse opinions with 
no other arguments than insurrection and 
murder. On the contrary, great latitude of 
belief and practice has always prevailed 
among them, and especially among the troops, 
in whose ranks will be found seceders of 
various denominations- from the orthodox 
systems. It was not, therefore, the dis¬ 
semination of Christian doctrines that ex¬ 
cited the angry apprehensions of the sepoys 
on the melancholy occasion which has called 
for these observations, nor does it appear that 
any unusual activity in the propagation of 
those doctrines was exercised by Christian 
missionaries at the period of its occurrence. 
It was not conversion which the troops 
dreaded, it was compulsion; it was not 
the reasoning or the persuasion of the 
missionary which they feared, but the arbi¬ 
trary interposition of authority. They be¬ 
lieved, of course erroneously, that the govern¬ 
ment was about to compel them to become 
Christians, and they resisted compulsory con- 
version by violence. The lesson is one of 
great seriousness, and should never be lost 
sight of as long as the relative position 
of the British government and its Indian 
subjects remains unaltered. It is not suf¬ 
ficient that the authority of the ruling 
power should never interpose in matters 
of religious belief; it should carefully avoid 
furnishing grounds of suspicion that it even 
intends to interfere.”* Had the warning 
given by the astute and learned professor 
been heeded, the question of the greased 
cartridges would never have arisen, and the 
Bengal army would not have been lost. 
That Mussulmen conspiracies existed in 
various places is probable, and that a general 
impatience of the authority of the Christians 
prevailed among the Mohammedans, is as 
indisputable as that they took the earliest 
occasion of turning the revolt to their own 
account; but that the inexorable rules of 
caste, placed in opposition to an imprudent, 
stupid, and unintentional attempt to violate 
it, caused the revolt, is a verdict to which 
most men must come who read the records 
of the military rebellion of 1857 in the 
Bengal presidency. ' The rapid spread of 
disaffection does not require the theory of a 
pre-existing conspiracy to account for it. In 
the nature of things the like would occur 
when the revolt in the first instance had a 
caste origin. The philosophy of its rapid 
extension was expressed by Sir Charles 
Napier in a single paragraph. when writing 
of the probability of military insurrection in 
India:—“ In all mutinies some men more 
* India, Mill and Wilson, vol. vii. p. 140. 



44 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II. 


daring than others are allowed to take the 
lead, -while the more wary prepare to profit 
when time suits. A Jew men in a few corps, 
a few corps in an army, begin; if successful, 
they are joined by their more calculating and 
by their more timid comrades.’’ 

The imprudence and oversight of British 
officials made the occasion of the revolt, the 
operating principle was caste. The following 
extract from the deposition of a jemadar of 
native infantry depicts the state of mind of 
the soldiers, the despair of preserving their 
fealty with their honour and their caste, and 
the cruel vindictiveness which a sense of the 
greatest injury conceivable by them inspired : 
“ On the night of the 5th instant (February, 
1857), soon after eight o’clock, roll-call, two 
or three men (sepoys) came to me, and made 
me accompany them to the parade-ground, 
where I found a great crowd assembled, com¬ 
posed, to the best of my belief, of the "men of 
the different regiments at this station. They 
had their heads tied up with cloths, having 
only a small part of the face exposed. They 
asked me to join them, and I asked them 
what I was to join them in. They replied 
that they were willing to die for their reli¬ 
gion, and that if they could make an arrange¬ 
ment that evening, the next night, February 
6 th, 1857, they would plunder the station, 
and kill all the Europeans, and then go where 
they liked.” The institution of caste must 
always be a source of insubordination in the 
army, and danger to the state. 

The native princes, Hindoo and Moham¬ 
medan, are so much under caste prejudices, 
and so enslaved by superstitious observances, 
that they lead lives as puerile as their re¬ 
tainers, and exhibit a judgment on matters of 
conscience and religion utterly feeble. Even 
princes of the Sudra caste have crouched to 
the Brahmin, and subjected themselves to the 
most abject ceremonies. The following spe¬ 
cimen of the superstitious thraldom of a 
prince rendered infamous by his cruelties, will 
exhibit the -weak and absurd religious cha¬ 
racter even of men of vigour in other relations 
of life. This picture is drawn by no ur- 
friendly hand, but by one rather disposed lo 
palliate and soften down the inexcusable folly 
and hard features of the superstition. The 
sanguinary Nana Sahib, whose butcheries at 
Cawnpore have filled the world with horror, 
is the subject of the sketch. Ex uno disce 
omnes. “ Here sat the maharajah on a 
Turkey carpet, and reclining slightly on a 
huge bolster. In front of him were his 
hookah, a sword, and several nosegays. His 
highness rose, came forward, took my hand, 
led me to the carpet, and begged of me to be 
seated on a cane-bottomed arm-chair, which 


had evidently Deen placed ready for my 
especial ease and occupancy. A hookah is 
called for by the rajah, and then at least a 
dozen voices repeat the order—* Hookah, lao 
sahib ke waste' (bring a hook'ah for the 
sahib). Presently the hookah is brought in ; 
it is rather a grand affair, but old, and has 
evidently belonged to some European of ex¬ 
travagant habits.While I am pulling 

away at the hookah, the mensahibs, or fa¬ 
vourites of the rajah, flatter me in very 
audible whispers. ‘ How well he smokes ! ’— 

‘ What a fine forehead he has ! ’■—‘ And his 
eyes! how they sparkle ‘ No wonder he 
is so clever! ’■—‘ He will be governor-general 
someday.’—‘Khuda-Kuriu’ (God will have 

it so). Native rajah (in a loud voice). 

‘ Moonshee ! ’ — Moonshee ( who is close at 
hand). ‘ Maharaj, protector of the poor ! ’ 
—Native rajah. ‘ Bring the petition that I 
have laid before the governor-general.’ The 
moonshee produces the petition, and, at the 
instance of the rajah, reads, or rather sings it 
aloud. The rajah listens with pleasure to its 
recital of his own wrongs, and I affect to he 
astounded that so much injustice can possibly 
exist. During my rambles in India I have been 
the guest of some scores of rajahs, great and 
small, and I never knew one who had not a 
grievance. He had either been wronged by 
the government, or by some judge whose 
decision had been against him. In the 
matter of the government it w r as a sheer 
love of oppression that led to the evil of 
which he complained; in the matter of the 
judge, that functionary had been bribed by 
the other party. It was with great difficulty 
that I kept my eyes open while the petition 
—a very long one—was read aloud. Shortly 
after it was finished I craved permission to 
retire, and was conducted by a bearer to the 

sleeping-room.The maharajah invited 

me to accompany him to Cawnpore. I ac¬ 
quiesced, and the carriage was ordered. The 
carriage was English built—a very handsome 
landau, and the horses were English. But 
the harness ! It was country made, and of 
the very commonest kind, and worn out, for 
one of the traces was a piece of rope. The 
coachman was filthy in his dress, and the 
whip that he carried in his hand was an old 
broken buggy whip, which some European 
gentleman must have thrown away. On the 
box, on either side of the coachman, sat a 
warlike retainer, armed with a sword and a 
dagger. In the rumble were two other 
retainers, armed in the same manner. Be¬ 
sides the rajah and myself there were three 
others (natives, and relatives of the rajah) in 
the vehicle. On the road the rajah talked 
incessantly, and among things that he told 







IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


45 


Chap. II.] 

me was this in reference to the praises that I 
bestowed on his equipage :—* Not long ago I 
had a carriage and horses very superior to 
these. They cost me 25,000 rupees, hut I 
had to burn the carriage, and kill the horses.’ 
—* Why so ? ’—‘ The child of a certain sahib 
in Cawnpore was very sick, and the sahib 
and the mensahib were bringing the child to 
Bithoor for a change of air. I sent my big 
carriage for them. On the road the child 
died, and of course, as a dead body had been 
in the carriage, and as the horses "had drawn 
that dead body in that carriage, I could never 
use them again.’ The reader must under¬ 
stand that a native of any rank considers it a 
disgrace to sell property. ‘ But could you 
not have given the horses to some friend, a 
Christian or a Mussulman?’—‘No; had I 
done so it might have come to the knowledge 
of the sahib, and his feelings would have been 
hurt at having occasioned me such a loss.’ 
Such was the maharajah commonly known as 
Nana Sahib. He appears to be not a man of 
ability, nor a fool. He was selfish, but what 
native is not ? He seemed to be far from a 
bigot in matters of religion; and although he 
was compelled to be so very particular about 
the destruction of his carriage and horses, I 
am quite satisfied that he drank brandy, and 
that he smoked hemp in the chillum of his 
hookah.” 

Terrible as was the practice of Suttee, 
which was abolished by the government in 
December of the year 1829, and oppressive 
as the bondage of India was, which continued 
with little mitigation until August, 1838, 
when the government suppressed it, neither 
of these aspects of the character of the reli¬ 
gion of the Hindoos surpassed in barbarity 
the robbery and assassination which, under 
the name of Thug, and various other desig¬ 
nations, exist to this day. Caste, which is 
not merely a social institution or an enactment 
of Hindoo civil law, but a religious institu¬ 
tion, dependent upon the creed of those who 
observe it, is answerable for these foul deeds. 
“ The Hindoos have some peculiarities that 
do not admit of classification. As they have 
castes for all the trades, they have also castes 
for thieves, and men are brought up to con¬ 
sider robbing as their hereditary occupation. 
Most of the hill tribes bordering on cultivated 
countries are of this description; and even 
throughout the plains there are castes more 
notorious for theft and robbery than gipsies 
used to be for pilfering in Europe. In their 
case hereditary professions seem favourable 
to skill, for there are nowhere such dextrous 
thieves as in India. Travellers are full of 
stories of the patience, perseverance, and 
address with which they will steal, unper¬ 


ceived, through the midst of guards, and 
carry off their prize in the most dangerous 
situations. Some dig holes in the earth, and 
come up within the wall of a well-closed 
house; others, by whatever way they enter, 
always open a door or two to secure a retreat, 
and proceed to plunder, naked, smeared with 
oil, and armed with a dagger, so that it is as 
dangerous to seize as it is difficult to hold 
them. One class, called Thugs, continually 
travel about the country, assuming different 
disguises—an art in which they are perfect 
masters. Their practice is to insinuate them¬ 
selves into the society of travellers whom 
they hear to be possessed of property, and to 
accompany them till they have an opportunity 
of administering a stupifying drug, or -of 
throwing a noose over the neck of their un¬ 
suspecting companion. He is then murdered 
without blood being shed, and buried so skil¬ 
fully, that a long time elapses before his fate 
is suspected. The Thugs invoke Bhawani, 
and vow a portion of their spoil to her. This 
mixture of religion and crime might of itself' 
be mentioned as a peculiarity, but it is paral¬ 
leled by the vows of pirates and banditti to 
the Madonna ; and in the case of Mussulmen, 
who form the largest portion of the Thugs, it 
is like the compacts with the devil, which 
were believed in the days of superstition. It 
need scarcely be said that the long descent of 
the thievish castes gives them no claim on 
the sympathy of the rest of the community, 
who look on them as equally obnoxious to 
punishment, both in this world and the next, 
as if their ancestors had belonged to the 
most virtuous classes. The hired watchmen 
are generally of these castes, and are faithful 
and efficacious. Their presence alone is a 
protection against their own class, and their 
skill and vigilance against strangers. Gujerat 
is famous for one class of people of this sort, 
whose business it is to trace thieves by their 
footsteps. In a dry country a bare foot 
leaves little prints to common eyes, but one 
of these people will perceive all its pecu-. 
liarities, so as to recognise it in all its circum¬ 
stances, and will pursue a robber by these 
vestiges for a distance that seems incre¬ 
dible.” * 

The religious condition of considerable, 
numbers of the people in the remoter parts 
of India, and' in places less accessible, is not 
so much influenced by caste prejudices as 
that of the people in the rich and cultivated 
portions of the country, or near the great 
cities and centres of native or English govern¬ 
ment. This circumstance has led many public 
men to state that the distinction of caste was 
altogether on the wane. The Rev. Mr. Miall, 

* Elphinstone, lib. 111. cap. xi. p. 191. 



.46 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II. 


the talented, editor of the Nonconformist 
newspaper, and late member for Rochdale, 
boldly affirmed, at a public meeting in 1857, 
that caste was perishing all over India, and 
would have died out before now, but for the 
support given to it by the government of the 
East India Company. This view receives a 
seeming support from the fact that the mem¬ 
bers of particular castes, soldiers of native 
regiments in the company’s service, have 
sometimes agreed to dispense with the cus¬ 
tomary observances which their caste pre¬ 
scribed. It is, however, a delusion to suppose 
that, in the main, the power of the institution 
is shaken, however inconsistent the casuis¬ 
try of particular bodies of men may appear, 
when acting under a strong temptation to 
set some of its rules aside. No person well 
acquainted with the condition of India, as a 
whole, or with the mental habits of the races 
which people it, would support the opinion 
expressed by Mr. Miall, and which, upon the 
faith of his statement, many not conversant with 
India are likely to receive. The vast multi¬ 
tudes of Hindoostan cling tenaciously to the 
prescriptions and distinctions of this institu¬ 
tion. There are, however, in Central India 
more particularly, predatory tribes who, un¬ 
less they consider themselves of the thief or 
of the Thug class, do not observe caste at all, 
but who are sunk in the grossest idolatry, 
brutality, and crime :—“ The hills and forests 
in the centre of India are inhabited by a 
people differing widely from those who occupy 
the plains. They are small, black, slender, 
but active, with peculiar features, and a quick 
restless eye. They wear few clothes, are 
armed with bows and arrows, make open 
profession of plunder, and, unless the govern¬ 
ment is strong, are always at war with all 
their neighbours. When invaded, they con¬ 
duct their operations with secrecy and cele¬ 
rity, and shower their arrows from rocks and 
thickets, whence they can escape before they 
can be attacked, and often before they can be 
seen. They live in scattered, and sometimes 
movable hamlets, are divided into small com¬ 
munities, and allow great power to their 
chiefs. They subsist on the product of their 
own imperfect cultivation, and on wffiat they 
obtain by exchanges or plunder from the 
plains. They occasionally kill game, but do 
not depend on that for their support. In 
many parts the berries of the mahua-tree 
form an important part of their food. Besides 
one or two of the Hindoo gods, they have 
many of their own, who dispense particular 
blessings or calamities. The one who pre¬ 
sides over the smallpox is, in most places, 
looked on with peculiar awe. They sacrifice 
fowls, pour libations before eating, are guided 


by inspired magicians, and not by priests, 
bury their dead, and have some ceremonies 
on the birth of children, marriages, and fune¬ 
rals, in common. They are all much addicted 
to spirituous liquors, and most of them kill 
and eat oxen. Their great abode is in the 
Vindaya Mountains, which run east and west 
from the Ganges to Gujerat, and the broad 
tract of forest which extends north and south 
from the neighbourhood of Allahabad to the 
latitude of Masulipatam, and, with interrup¬ 
tions, almost to Cape Comorin. In some 
places the forest has been encroached on by 
cultivation, and the inhabitants have remained 
in the plains as village watchmen, hunters, 
and other trades suited to their habits. In a 
few places their devastations have restored 
the clear country to the forest, and the re¬ 
mains of villages are seen among the haunts 
of wild beasts.” * 

These representations of the low condition 
and sanguinary habits of the native popula¬ 
tions are not overdrawn. Our knowledge of 
the various rude tribes, and of the castes in 
the more civilised districts, is imperfect; but 
the more we are acquainted with them, the 
better authenticated and the more enlarged 
our means of information, the more does 
it become obvious that the condition of the 
people is barbarous and horrible—as when the 
geologist brings to light some fragment of an 
antediluvian monster, men are astonished at 
the proportions, but it is only when the other 
fragments are found, and the huge skeleton 
stands to view in its completeness, that the 
idea of its monstrosity can be thoroughly 
realised. 

Whatever be the moral condition of the 
Hindoo people, however superstitious their 
ideas of religion, and of religious services, 
they have been munificent in erecting shrines 
to their idolatry, and their temples greatly 
add to the picturesque features of the land. 
Some of the religious edifices are called Cave 
Temples. They are generally excavations 
from the rock, and assume proportions of 
magnitude and grandeur. They are extremely 
numerous; the rocks of Cashmere contain, it 
is alleged, more than twelve thousand of 
them. Notwithstanding their number, the 
vastness of many of them is sublime. Thej r 
are not all devoted to the Hindoo religion, 
many being temples of Buddha, as are those 
of Ellora. 

The caves of Ajunta are more vast, and 
there is a solemnity in their appearance which 
amounts to awe. These caves are not mere 
excavations, they are architecturally hewn in 
the Ghauts. Indian columns and pillars of 
vast size and elaborate design support, divide, 
* Elphinstone, lib. in. cap. xi. p. 193. 



Ohap. II.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


47 


and decorate the spacious compartmerits. 
On these pillars protruding and receding 
angles, rich carvings and elaborate ornaments, 
show the taste and devotion of the Hindoo 
devotees. The walls are profusely ornamented 
in some instances, partly by chiselled work, 
partly in stucco, and in some cases rather 
extensively in painting, both in oil and water 
colours. Mr. Capper, quoting the authority 
of an officer of the company’s service, who 
made drawings of many of these sacred caves 
in Cashmere, represents the human figure as 
especially well executed; while Mr. Elphin- 
stone, relying upon the Asiatic researches, 
and the testimony of gentlemen skilled in 
architectural science, declares that the human 
figures are more deficient in taste than any 
other decorative forms, and that the total 
ignorance of perspective, and of the faculty 
of artistic grouping, is remarkable. Fruit, 
flowers, ornament, and mythical designs, are 
more successfully depicted. 

The same criticism may he applied to the 
decoration of the superstructural temples ; al¬ 
though of them, as well as of the cave sanctu¬ 
aries, it is affirmed by some admirers of every¬ 
thing Indian, that they far surpass in perspect- 
ive, grouping, and richness of ornament the 
architecture and architectural paintings and 
carvings of Europe of corresponding antiquity. 

It is becoming a more general opinion, that 
the temples in a complete state which most 
attract the notice of Europeans for their 
beauty and extent, are comparatively modern; 
although they have been so frequently re¬ 
ferred to as illustrating the very early de¬ 
velopment of the arts and of sacred architec¬ 
ture in India. There is perhaps no exception 
to the rule that the temples display a faculty 
of minute detail and richness of ornament, on 
the part of their constructors, rather than the 
bold and general comprehension and design 
of European genius. There are no specimens 
of Indian temples to be compared for simple 
but comprehensive boldness and dignity with 
the temples of pagan Greece or Rome, for 
solemn grandeur with the swelling domes of 
the best mosques of the Mohammedans, or 
for chaste sublimity with Christian churches. 

The temples of Cashmere are the finest in 
India, using the term India in its broad sense; 
but these have such evident traces of Greek 
origin, as to deprive the native architects of 
the credit of original conception in their 
design. The columns are what is called 
Arian, and very unlike any of the many 
varieties found elsewhere in the Indian 
temples. 

The general architecture of places dedi¬ 
cated to the gods bears a nearer resemblance 
to that used for the same purpose in Egypt 


than to any other, yet the diversities are con¬ 
siderable. There is much difference in the 
size of the Hindoo temples. Sometimes only 
a single chamber, ornamented by a portico, 
covered with a pyramidical roof, curiously 
surmounted by metallic decorations, consti¬ 
tutes the temple. The devotee approaches a 
door, which alone opens into the inner sanctum, 
and presents his offerings. In other instances 
the sanctuary is surrounded by many courts, 
approached by passages and colonnades, lesser 
sanctuaries, devoted to minor gods, being 
comprehended within those courts. In one 
instance the circumvaling buildings comprise 
a space of four miles. 

The general effect of the larger temples is 
imposing. They are frequently built in great 
cities, which they adorn. Sometimes they 
are erected in the retirement of forests, in 
lonely places on the banks of great rivers, 
especially the Ganges, and high up on pla¬ 
teaux of the Ghauts or Himalayas. The 
lonely grandeur of these isolated dwellings 
of the gods can hardly fail to impress the 
oriental imagination; and there is generally 
a tasteful keeping between the style of the 
edifice and the scenery in which it is placed, 
whether nestled amidst forest foliage, casting 
its shadow over the river murmuring round 
its w r alls, or lifting its tall towers from the 
mountain rock high up into the blazing light, 
as if alike inviting gods and men to meet 
within its solemn precincts. Alas! what horrid 
rites disfigure these costly altars! upon what 
dreadful scenes might these pictorial gods 
and heroes look, were they animated to be¬ 
hold for a moment the worshippers that gaze 
upon them! How the great enemy of man 
triumphs over prostrate reason, and deluded 
hopes, and fears, and feelings, within the 
spaces enclosed by those wreathed columns 
and stuccoed walls! He that studies her 
worship must, d priori, know that India is 
debased—that avarice, lust, and slaughter, 
are the passions which rage within the 
Hindoo heart, as flames from different sacri¬ 
fices on the same altar are ever conflicting, 
yet blending as they rise. While the sacred 
Scriptures tell us that an “ idol is nothing in 
the world,”—a thing to be counted nothing,— 
yet they also depict the degradation, passion, 
cruelty and crime which may be inspired by 
the associations with which the imagination 
surrounds the senseless block. India, in her 
state and in her history, confirms with start¬ 
ling verification the philosophy of idolatry 
which the Christian Scriptures reveal. It is 
the religion of India, but more especially the 
idolatrous religion of India, that make its 
people alike servile and tyrannical, weak and 
wicked. The following is perhaps as faithful 




48 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II 


a moral picture as was ever drawn of any 
original. He who would understand India 
must comprehend that the sources of her 
degradation lie thus deep :—“ To what cause, 
then, shall we attribute that prostration of 
mind and depravity of heart which have sunk 
a great people into wretchedness, and ren¬ 
dered them the object of political contempt 
and of moral abhorrence ? The answer is 
readily obtained—to superstition, to the pre¬ 
valence of a mighty system of religious im¬ 
posture, as atrocious as it is extravagant, 
which in the same degree that it dishonours 
the Supreme Being corrupts and debases his 
rational creatures; which, upon the most 
outrageous absurdity, engrafts the most abo¬ 
minable vice, and rears a temple to false and 
filthy deities upon the ruins of human intel¬ 
lect and human virtue. It were criminal to 
conceal or palliate the real cause of Hindoo 
degeneracy. It is false religion, and nothing 
else. The gods whom the Hindoos worship 
are impersonations of all the vices and all the 
crimes which degrade human nature, and 
there is no grossness and no villany which 
does not receive countenance from the ex¬ 
ample of some or other of them. The vilest 
and most slanderous impurity pervades their 
mythology throughout, is interwoven with all 
its details, is at once its groundwork and its 
completion, its beginning and its end. The 
robber has his god, from whom he invokes a 
blessing on his attempt against the life and 
property of his neighbour. Revenge, as well 
as robbery, finds a kindred deity ; and cruelty, 
the never-failing companion of idolatry, is the 
essence of the system. The rites and cere¬ 
monies are worthy of the faith; they may be 
summed up in three words—folly, licentious¬ 
ness, and cruelty. Penances, silly and re¬ 
volting, are the means of expiating sin. 
Grossness the most horrible, both in nature 
and in degree, from which the most aban¬ 
doned characters in the most abandoned 
parts of Europe would recoil, enters into 
public worship, and the higher festivals 
are honoured by an increased measure of 
profligacy. That unhappy class of females 
who everywhere else are regarded with 
contemptuous scorn, or with painful com¬ 
miseration, are in India appendages to the 
temples of religion. The Hindoo faith, in 
perfect conformity with its character, demands 
barbarous as well as licentious exhibitions, 
and torture and death are among its most 
acceptable modes of service. From such 
deities and such modes of worship what can 
we expect but what we find? If the sub¬ 
lime example of perfect purity which true 
religion places before its followers be calcu¬ 
lated to win to virtue, must not universal con¬ 


tamination be the necessary consequence of 
investing pollution and crime with the garb 
of divinity ? If men find licentiousness and 
cruelty associated with the ceremonies of 
religion, is it possible that they should believe 
them to be wrong? Can they be expected 
in private life to renounce as criminal, prac¬ 
tices which in public they have been taught 
to regard as meritorious ? Will they abhor 
in the world that which they reverence in 
the sanctuary ? It were absurd to believe it. 
The Hindoo system prescribes the observ¬ 
ance of frivolous ceremonies, and neglects to 
inculcate important moral duties. But its 
pernicious influence does not terminate there ; 
it enforces much that is positively evil. By 
the institution of castes it estranges man 
from his fellows, and shuts up avenues of 
benevolence ; invests one part of society with 
the privilege of unrestrained indulgence, 
casting over them the cloak of sanctity, 
however unworthy,—shielding them from 
the consequences of their actions, however 
flagitious, and condemns another to hopeless 
and perpetual debasement, without the chance 
of emancipation or improvement. A system 
more mischievous or iniquitous, better calcu¬ 
lated to serve the interests of vice, or destroy 
those of virtue, seems beyond the power of 
the most perverted ingenuity to frame.” * 
Hindooism or Brahminism is not the only 
form of ancient religion prevailing in Hin- 
doostan and the neighbouring countries. Bud¬ 
dhism approaches nearest to it in antiquity, 
and is far more extensively professed. The 
religion of Buddha is not of much influence 
in India proper, but in Thibet, China, Tenes- 
serim, Pegu, Birmah, Japan, and other 
countries of Eastern Asia, it is the prevailing 
religion. In the island of Ceylon it is the 
religion of nearly the whole population. 
The founder of this new creed was born 
late in the seventh century before Christ, 
and was, or at all events is reputed to have 
been, the son of a Hindoo king. His name 
was Sakya, or Gotama, by both of which 
designations he is known, but is more gene¬ 
rally called Gotama Buddha. The term 
Buddha seems to be a title expressive of 
his attainments and exalted being, for it 
means intelligence. Early in the sixth cen¬ 
tury before Christ he set up for a prophet 
and teacher, and for half a century exerted 
himself in the propagation of his doctrines, 
which rapidly spread through Hindoostan 
and the neighbouring countries. It was ulti¬ 
mately nearly extirpated in India by perse¬ 
cution on the part of the Brahmins, but it 
continues to this day, and is the faith of 

* India ; its State and Prospects, by Edward Thorn¬ 
ton. 




Chap. IL] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


49 


multitudes in China, Birmah, British Birmah, 
Japan, Ceylon, and in portions of Nepaul and 
Thibet. There are more votaries of this 
belief than of any other religion, true or 
false, in the world. Gotama was originally a 
very pious Hindoo, of the caste of the Ksha- 
tryas, and the Brahmins allege that he was 
moved to become an apostate by envy of the 
superior caste of the Brahmins, whose privi¬ 
leges he could not attain, although being the 
son of a king. His votaries say that, by a 
life of austerity and contemplation, he attained 
to the true philosophy, and reformed the 
errors of mankind. His creed is atheistical 
materialism. The being of a god is denied, 
the eternity of matter and its essential and 
inherent power to produce all organisations 
without any external action upon it is af¬ 
firmed. Yet there is not unity of opinion 
among the followers of Buddha; for while in 
China and parts of Tartary they are athe¬ 
istical, in Nepaul, Thibet, and other parts of 
Tartary they are theists, but deny the crea¬ 
tion, government, and providence of God. 
They represent him as a being whose apathy 
to all external things constitutes his happi¬ 
ness, and they regard the attainment of a 
similar apathy by themselves as the perfection 
of life. Some sects of the Buddhists believe 
that God and matter are the same; that 
matter is the exterior of God, and its pro¬ 
ductive and reproductive power they describe 
as the involuntary, and, some of them say, 
unconscious action of the Deity. In some 
parts of the East they are polytheists, but 
this view is confined to the vulgar. In the 
industriously compiled and clever book on 
Christianity in Ceylon, written by Sir Emer¬ 
son Tennant, errors of statement have arisen 
from a want of perception of this sectarian 
discrepancy. 

There are in the system of Buddha various 
orders of superior intelligences— i. e. glorified 
men, who have made themselves what they 
are by penances and wisdom. The process 
by which such high attainment is reached is 
transmigration, which goes on through various 
worlds, and has gone on in various worlds 
before the subject of the mysterious changes 
was an inhabitant of this earth. The Buddhas 
are the highest order of intelligences; of 
them there are many, sixteen chief Buddhas 
having reached the highest state of felicity; 
the last of them was Gotama, by whom the 
mystery was revealed. The religious exer¬ 
cises consist of penances and bodily mor¬ 
tifications, which are systematised. The 
most intense devotees unite themselves into 
associations, as monks and nuns in Roman 
Catholic Christendom. Buddha is not osten- ; 
sibly worshipped; he is the prophet, exemplar, 

VOL. i. 


and guide of men, who may, like him, be finally 
absorbed into the deity, so as to have no 
separate existence. Those who refuse to 
adopt any terms recognising the existence 
of deity in any sense, hope to attain an 
intellectual existence perfectly passionless, 
and which is happy in a serene tranquillity, 
which allows of no action, nor permits any 
action upon itself from any form of existence 
beyond it. 

Religious houses for women have gradually 
disappeared, but extensive confraternities exist 
wherever Buddhism flourishes. The priests 
or monks wear robes of yellow cloth, go 
barefooted, live by alms, abstain from animal 
food, or at least from killing animals for food, 
and most religiously shave the head in the 
form of the Roman tonsure. Many wear a 
thin gauze on the lips and nostrils, to prevent 
insect life from touching them. They profess 
a high standard of morality—as high as 
that of the Vedas—probably higher than that 
contained in those books; but, as in the case 
of the Brahmins, and other professors of the 
Brahminical religion, a subtle and corrupt 
casuistry eludes the standard, and the fol¬ 
lowers of Buddha exhibit all the cruelty, 
treachery, licentiousness, and avarice pre¬ 
vailing in China, in which vices they are 
nearly as deeply sunk as the worshippers of 
Brahma. 

Dr. Cooke Taylor defined Buddhism as 
being a philosophical, political, and religious 
reformation of Brahminism. It is not clear 
whether the learned gentleman meant that it 
professed to be so, as one might suppose he 
would, after a comparison of the two systems— 
for it assuredly was no improvement upon 
the religion of the Vedas, as it existed six cen¬ 
turies before Christ. The political and moral 
philosophy of the Vedas, and the religious 
theory of those books, with all their defects, 
are superior to the cold abstractions and 
miserable materialism of Buddha. When 
the same historian describes the new system 
as substituting sanctity for sacrifice, it would 
appear as if the pleasing alliteration of the 
sentence in some degree concealed the fact 
from the cognizance of the writer. The 
Hindooism of Gotama Buddha’s day taught 
humility, reverence, and the necessity of 
sinful creatures approaching the divinities 
by media that were intercessory and expia¬ 
tory. The “sanctity” of Buddhism is a 
frigid self-righteousness, in which, according 
to Mr. Hodgson, “ the ascetic despises the 
priest, the saint scorns the aid of medi¬ 
ators.” * The sentence of Mr. Hodgson is 
only applicable, however, to what he calls 
“ genuine Buddhism,” for no race of devotees 
* Asiatic Researches. 


n 



50 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II. 


were ever more priest-ridden by tlieir monks 
than the followers of this sect ; and with 
all their vague notions of deity, they, in 
some of the many nations where their belief 
is received, offer sacrifices both expiatory and 
eucharistical. Offerings of various kinds are 
also presented to deceased men whose virtues 
merited especial reverence, and sometimes 
even to demons, who are always represented 
as capable of good actions, and of ultimately 
purifying themselves, until they also are 
absorbed into the divine essence. 

Dr. Taylor rather obscurely intimates that 
the extravagance of princes, and the popular 
disposition to attribute to them virtue in 
proportion to their lavish excesses, suggested 
to Gotama Buddha the idea of a reformation, 
by which contempt of human affairs and self- 
denial would become the great tests of virtue. 
There is no proof that such was the case. It 
is plain, from the Buddhist system, that, like 
the Brahminical, it had its origin in the 
Babylonian philosophy, each adopting promi¬ 
nently the features of that system which the 
other neglected—the Brahmin regarding the 
theological aspect of Babylonianism, the Bud¬ 
dhist looking rather to the philosophical. The 
founder had evidently studied that philosophy, 
and pointed it out to the people as a neglected 
portion of the doctrines of their fathers. He 
found traditions in existence which facilitated 
the progress of his propagandism. 

Notice has been already taken of the ton¬ 
sured priests or monks of Buddha, the tonsure 
being Babylonian in its origin. The Bud¬ 
dhists of Tartary use the sign of the cross as 
a charm to dispel invisible dangers, and reve¬ 
rence the form of the cross in many ways, 
proving the Babylonish origin of the system. 
The mystic Tau, the initial of the name 
Taumuz (or Tammuz) was originially written 
This was marked on the foreheads of 1 
the worshippers when they were admitted 
to the mysteries. The Tau was half the 
labarum, the idolatrous standard of early 
pagan nations—the other half being the cres¬ 
cent. The former was the emblem of the 
Babylonian Bacchus—the latter of Astarte, the 
Queen of Heaven. In every nation possess¬ 
ing a creed or a philosophy the same sign 
has been used, having the same derivation. 
At Nineveh it was found among the ruins as 
a sacred emblem.* In Egypt it was simi¬ 
larly used, as is well known, f The Spanish 
priests were astounded to find the cross wor¬ 
shipped in Mexico. J These were all streams 
from the same fountain—Babylon. The mo¬ 
nasteries which are so numerous among the 
Buddhists, and the nunneries which, although 
fallen into disrepute in India proper, still 
* Layanl. f Bryant. % Prescott. 


exist in Buddhist countries, were purely 
Babylonian in their origin. The monasteries 
of Babylon were devoted to the Babylonian 
Messiah, and the nunneries to the Madonna. 
The vestal virgins of Rome, the Scandinavian 
priestesses of Freya, who vowed perpetual 
virginity,* and the lady virgins of Peru, f 
were all copies of the same original. Pres¬ 
cott, in his Pent, expresses his astonishment 
at finding that the institutions of ancient 
Rome were to be found among the South 
American Indians. It is still more surpris¬ 
ing that both are not traced more generally 
to their real source, that from which the 
Buddhists derived theirs—ancient Babylon. 

The Buddhists are not considered idolaters 
by any writers of reputation, yet it would be 
an error to suppose that they are free from 
the superstitious rise of idols. The original 
idolatry of Babylon, consisted in paying a 
relative honour of a sacred kind to the images 
of the divine beings or attributes thus repre¬ 
sented. The primitive idolatry of the Brah¬ 
minical religion was the same. Buddhism 
adopts practically the same theory. It reve¬ 
rences its chief ascetics, as the Brahmins do 
their minor gods; and it makes images of 
the Buddhas, and images emblematical of the 
transmigrations and chief facets in the spiritual 
history of its saints. A recent correspondent 
of the Times London newspaper relates the 
surprise he felt at discovering idolatry and 
a species of atheistical materialism as prevail¬ 
ing together, and professed even by the same 
persons, in the year 1857. Indeed, atheism 
of the Buddhist order is strangely mixed up 
in the minds of most of the Chinese with 
idolatrous superstitions of Babylonian origin, 
and probably by way of Hindoostan. The 
following letter from the China correspondent 
of the journal just mentioned confirms the 
above remarks as to the genius and practical 
character of Buddhism. The letter is dated 
village of Seehoo, August 14th, 1857:— 

“ Our days were passed in the great Bud¬ 
dhist temples and in the monasteries of the 
Bonzes. They take us to the Temple of the 
Great Buddha—a mighty bust forty feet 
high, carved out of the rock, and gilt; thence 
to a still larger temple, where a moving 
pagoda and forty-nine colossal idols comme¬ 
morate the forty-nine transmigrations of 
Buddha. These temples, however, great as 
they are in size and gorgeous grotesqueness, 
are but as little Welsh churches compared to 
the wonders of the £ Yun Lin,’ the ‘ Cloudy 
Forest.’ This is not so much a temple as a 
region of temples. It is suggestive of the 
scenes of those ancient pagan mysteries where 

* Maillet’s Northern Antiquities, vol. i. p. 120. 

f Prescott’s Peru, vol. i. p. 103. 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


61 


Chap. II.] 

the faith and fortitude of neophytes were 
tried, and their souls purified by successive 
terrors. It is a limestone district, abounding 
in caves and far-reaching dark galleries, and 
mysterious internal waters. These natural 
opportunities are improved by a priest and 
an altar in every cave, gigantic idols cut 
into the rock in unexpected places, rays of 
heavenly light which only the faithful votary 
ought to be able to see, but which, as they 
come through holes bored through the hill, 
sceptics sometimes catch sight of; inscrip¬ 
tions two thousand years old,* but deepened 
as time wears them. The place is a labyrinth 
of carved rocks, a happy valley of laughing 
Buddhas, and queens of Heaven, and squat¬ 
ting Buddhas, and hideous hook-nosed gods 
of India. There is a pervading smell of 
frankincense, and the single priest found here 
and there in solitary places, moaning his 
ritual, makes the place yet more lonely; 
and through this strange scene you pass 
through narrow paths to the foot of the 
colossal terrace steps which mount to the 
great temple itself. The wild birds are 
flying about this vast echoing hall of Buddha ; 
the idols are still bigger, and still more richly 
gilt. In the great ‘gallery of five hundred 
gods ’ all that can be done by art, laborious, 
but ignorant of beauty, reaches its climax. 
The cowled but tonsured bonzes come forth 
to greet us. Excellent tea and great choice 
of sweetmeats await us in the refectory. 

“ The wonders of this Hangchow Lake 
deserve better description than the object 
of these letters will allow me to attempt. 
The temple and tomb of the faithful minister 
of state, Yo Fei, occupy acres of ground and 
thousands of tons of monumental wood, stone, 
and iron. The imperial palace upon the 
lake, with its garden of rock-work and green 
ponds, its large library of unused books, 
its dim metal mirrors, richly embroidered 
cushions, and ricketty old chairs, opened to 
us with great difficulty, and under the im¬ 
mediate pressure of the almighty dollar. I 
hope some one under less imperative obliga¬ 
tion to eschew the merely picturesque, and to 
seek only for facts which may have a practic¬ 
able bearing, may yet describe these objects. 
My favourite eventide occupation was to 
ascend one of these hills, and sit at the 
foot of one of these half-burnt pagodas 
which stand about like blasted cypress-trees, 
and look down upon the Hangchow. The 
famous city lies like a map beneath me. Not 
a curl of smoke—not a building more lofty 

* This is probably an error; Buddhism has been proved 
incontestably to be no older than the date ascribed to it 
in this History. These temples were erected since Anno 
Domini. 


than the orthodox two-storied joss-house. I 
can see not only public temples, but also 
many of those private ancestral temples, 
which are to a Chinese gentleman what the 
chancel of his parish church is to an English 
squire. Little gardens, perhaps not forty feet 
square, full of weeds, and roclcwork, and little 
ponds; an oblong pavilion, with tablets upon 
the walls, descriptive of the names and 
achievements of the ancestors,—a kneeling- 
stool, an incense vase, candlesticks, a brazier 
to burn paper made in imitation of Sycee 
silver, and a sacrificial tub—such is a China¬ 
man’s private chapel. Here he comes on 
solemn days, and, the garden being weeded, 
and all things painted and renewed for the 
occasion, he prays and sacrifices to his an¬ 
cestors, and feasts with his friends. If the 
Chinaman has a superstition, this is it. His 
Buddhism is a ceremonial to the many, and a 
speculative philosophy to the adept, no more. 

“ Mr. Edkins’ object in visiting the temples 
of the lake was to hold controversy with the 
priests, so I had more opportunity of hearing 
what they really believe than usually falls to 
the lot of travellers who cannot read the Pali 
books. They did not feel his arguments 
against idolatry. They treat their grotesque 
gods with as much contempt as we do. They 
divide the votaries into three classes. First 
come the learned men, who perform the 
ritual, and observe the abstinence from ani¬ 
mal food, merely as a matter of discipline, 
but place their religion in absolute mental 
abstraction, tending to that perfection which 
shall fit them to be absorbed into that some¬ 
thing which, as they say, faith can conceive, 
but words cannot describe. Secondly come 
those who, unable to mount to this intellec¬ 
tual yearning after purification from all human 
sentiments, strive by devotion to fit them¬ 
selves for the heaven of the western Buddha, 
where transmigration shall cease, and they 
shall for all eternity sit upon a lotus-flower, 
and gaze upon Buddha, drawing happiness 
from his presence. Thirdly follow the vulgar, 
whose devotion can rise no higher than the 
sensual ceremonies, who strike their foreheads 
upon the steps of the temples, who burn in¬ 
cense, offer candles made from the tallow-tree, 
and save up their cash for festival days. So 
far as my experience goes, this class is con¬ 
fined almost entirely to old women, and the 
priests say that their one unvarying aspira¬ 
tion is that at their next transmigration they 
may become men. 

“ Such is Buddhism as we see it in China. 
But this is not all. A Chinese poet, who 
eight hundred years ago built an ugly 
straight-down in this beautiful Lake of See- 
hoo about the same time invented the Ten 



52 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II. 


Gods of Hell, and grafted them npon the 
Buddhist faith to terrify men from crime. 
There is also a reformed sect of Buddhists, 
who call themselves ‘Do-nothings/ and who 
place tha perfection of man in abstaining from 
all worship, all virtue, and all vice. When 
the Jesuit missionaries saw the mitres, the 
tonsure, the incense, the choir, and the statues 
of the Queen of Heaven, they exclaimed that 
the devil had been allowed to burlesque their 
religion. We Protestants may almost say 
the same. These reformed Buddhists deduce 
their origin from a teacher who was crucified 
in the province of Shantung some six hundred 
years ago, and they shock the missionaries 
by blasphemous parallels. I have heard that 
the present Bishop of Victoria investigated 
this sect, and sent home an account of them, 
but, for some reason, the statement was sup¬ 
pressed. 

“ Then we have the Taoists, or cultivators 
of perfect reason, which is a philosophy 
having also its temples and its ceremonies. 
We have the worship of Heaven, which is 
the prerogative of the emperor, and we have 
the state religion, the philosophy of Con¬ 
fucius, which is but metaphysics and ethics. 

“All these may form good subject of dis¬ 
cussion to laboriously idle men, but they are 
of very little practical importance. They are 
speculations, not superstitions. They are 
thought over, they are not felt. They in¬ 
spire no fanaticism, they create no zeal, they 
make no martyrs, they generate no intoler¬ 
ance. They are not faiths that men will 
fight for, or die for, or even feel zealous for. 
Your Chinese doctor is a man of great sub¬ 
tlety, of great politeness, but of the coldest 
indifference. He is a most pachydermatous 
beast, so far as the zeal of the Christian mis¬ 
sionary is concerned. ‘ Do you believe in 
Jesus Christ?’ asks the missionary after long 
teaching, patiently heard. ‘ Certainly I do,’ 
coldly answers the hearer. ‘But why do 
you believe ? Are you convinced—do you 
feel that what I have been saying is true ? ’ 
—‘I believe it because you say so,’ is the 
polite and hopeless answer. 

“It is this which makes the earnest mis¬ 
sionary despond. A Chinaman has no super¬ 
stition.* He has nothing that can be over¬ 
thrown, and leave a void. He will chin his 
joss, burn crackers before he starts on a 
voyage, or light a candle for a partner or a 
useful clerk who may be in danger of death. 
But it’s only hope of ‘ good luck,’ or fear of 
‘bad luck.’ The feeling is no deeper than 
that which in religious and enlightened Eng- 

* The writer furnishes abundant proof that the Bud¬ 
dhist is almost as much a slave to superstition as the 
Brahmins, although there is less of heart in his religion. 


land causes so many horse-shoes to be nailed 
up to keep out witches, or which makes 
decent housewives, who can read and write, 
separate crossed knives, throw pinches of salt 
over their shoulder, and avoid walking under 
a ladder. 

“ Clustered upon this hill, within the walls 
of Hangchow, are temples of all these varied 
forms of paganism, and perhaps within the 
year the same idolater has bow T ed in all of 
them. Two lofty green mounds are perhaps 
too large for mere private tombs, and mark 
the spot of some public hero-worship; but in 
other cases the architecture of the sacred 
and public edifices is all alike, and you 
cannot distinguish temples from custom¬ 
houses or mandarin offices.” 

The illustration of Buddhism afforded by 
the foregoing extract is very remarkable. 
No modern traveller has probably possessed 
similar opportunities of witnessing the Bud¬ 
dhist religion in its full practical exhibition 
as the writer, and it affords a singular and 
striking exhibition of what Buddhism is 
where its power is unchecked. 

Another religion of Hindoostan is that of the 
Jains. Dr. Cooke Taylor calls their religion a 
branch of Brahminism; it might with more 
propriety be termed a branch of Buddhism. 
In most of their doctrines these two religions 
agree, and in very many of their practices. 
Yet the Jains adopt and multiply the Hindoo 
gods. They, however, regard all the gods 
of Hindooism—even the dies majora —as in¬ 
ferior to certain saints of their own, whom 
they call Tirtankeras, of whom there are 
seventy-two.* They erect temples, and 
have colossal images of their Tirtankeras 
placed in them, also marble altars, and like¬ 
nesses of their saints above them in relief. 

There is one peculiarity which strikes Eu¬ 
ropeans, and particularly Roman Catholic 
Europeans,—the practice of auricular con¬ 
fession. This prevailed in ancient Babylon, 
like all, or nearly all, the chief superstitions 
of heathen nations. The Tartars are repre¬ 
sented as using the confessional by Humboldt, 
and the Mexicans by Prescott. Humboldt 
did not seem to be aware that the Tartars 
whom he represents thus were of the sect of 
the Jains ; some of them were probably Bud¬ 
dhists, or professing a mixture of Jainism 
and Buddhism. Dr. Stevenson, of Bombay, 
has proved that the Jains extensively adopt 
this exercise. Dr. Cooke Taylor represents 
them as having no priests ; Mr. Elphinstone, 
on the contrary, describes their religious 
leaders by that name. There are no bloody 

* Dr. Cooke Taylor represents them as twenty-four, 
but this is an error; there are three sets of Tirtankeras. 
each twenty-four in number. 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


53 


Chap. II.] 

sacrifices among them, hut bloodless offerings 
are presented to their saints, and to the 
gods of the Hindoo Pantheon, by officials 
sacredly set apart for such purposes. They 
are as much priests as those of the Hindoo 
religion. 

The Jains’ religion originated about the 
sixth century of our era. It attained the 
acme of its elevation and influence in the 
twelfth, and, after maintaining its position for 
about one hundred and fifty years, rapidly 
declined. Their chief seats of power are in 
the west of India. They are much addicted 
to commercial pursuits and banking. Several 
very rich bankers are numbered among them. 
The Brahmins persecuted them, as they did 
the Buddhists, and with similar success; in¬ 
deed, with the exception of the Moham¬ 
medans, the followers of Brahma are the 
most bigoted and persecuting of any sect in 
India. 

Brahminism, Buddhism, and Jainism, are 
represented as religions of Hindoo origin, but 
other systems which have existence in India 
are generally described as of foreign origin. 
Buddhism and Jainism certainly originated 
in Hindoostan, but Brahminism, in its ancient 
and peculiar characteristics, was known in 
Persia * in times as remote as any of which 
we have an account in Hindoo history. 

Gheberism was imported into Hindoostan 
from Persia, of which country it is supposed 
to have been the most ancient form of reli¬ 
gion. Its votaries are known in India by 
the name of Parsees. These people are scat¬ 
tered through various parts of India, and are 
few in number as compared with the other 
sects. The object of their adoration is the 
sun, and fire as supposed to come from that 
source. Their prophet is Zoroaster. The 
origin of fire-worship is Babylonian; it is 
another stream of idolatry from the great 
source. 

The Ghebers trace their doctrines to “ Ma- 
lek Gheber” (the mighty king); and he is 
undoubtedly identical with Nimrod, the first 
who began to be mighty (Gheber), and the 
first Molech, or king. The title which Be- 
rosus, the Chaldean historian, gives to Nim¬ 
rod is Al-orus (the god of fire). During the 
lifetime of Nimrod he assumed to be the Bol- 
ken, j" or priest, of the sun, or priest of Baal. 
Fire being the representation of the sun, it was 
also worshipped as emanating from the one 
god, which the sun was then considered to be. 
When Taumuz, the son of Nimrod, was 
deified, Nimrod himself was made a god. 
The story of Phaeton driving the chariot of 
the sun, and the consequent catastrophe, is 
* Sir John Malcolm, 
f Hence the Roman Vulcan. 


but the story of Taumuz, his sudden death, 
and the temporary cessation of the worship 
of the sun and the heavenly bodies. Zoro¬ 
aster was Taumuz—the word being originally 
Zero-ashta, the seed of the woman, referring 
to the promise in Eden. The Zoroaster who 
lived in the time of Darius Hystaspes must 
not be confounded with the primitive Zoro¬ 
aster.* 

The author of the Moral Identity of Rome 
and Babylon thus writes on this subject:— 
“ The identity of Bacchus and Zoroaster is 
easily proved. The very epithet Pyrisporus 
bestowed on Bacchus in the Orphic Hymns 
(Hymn xliv. 1) goes far to establish that 
identity. When the primeval promise of 
Eden began to be forgotten, the meaning of 
the name Zero-ashta was lost to all who knew 
only the exoteric doctrine of paganism ; and 
as ashta signified the ‘fire’ in Chaldee as 
well as ‘ the woman,’ and the rites of Taumuz 
had much to do with fire-worship, Zero-ashta 
came to be rendered ‘the seed of fire,’ and 
hence the epithet ‘ Pyrisporus,’ or Ignigena, 
‘fire-born,’ as applied to Bacchus. From this 
misunderstanding of the meaning of the name 
Zero-ashta came the whole story about the 
unborn infant Bacchus having been rescued 
from the flames that consumed his mother 
Semele, when Jupiter came in his glory to 
visit her. Now there was another name by 
which Zoroaster was known, which is not a 
little instructive, and that is Zoro-ades, or 
‘ the only seed.’ The ancient pagans, while 
they recognised supremely one only God, 
knew also that there was one only seed, on 
whom the hopes of the world depended. In 
almost all nations not only was a great god 
known under the name of Zero or Zer, ‘ the 
seed,’ and a great goddess under the name of 
Ashta or Isha, ‘the woman,’ but the great 
god Zero is frequently characterised by some 
epithet that implies that he is the ‘ only one.’ 
Now what can account for such names and 
epithets? Genesis iii. 15, can account for 
them; nothing else can. The name Zoro- 
ades also strikingly illustrates the saying of 
Paul—‘He saith not, And to seeds, as of 
many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which 
is Christ.’ ” 

In Persia, and portions of Central Asia, 
Afghanistan, and Thibet, the worshippers of 
fire are scattered as a persecuted sect. Those 
who bear the crescent as their ensign pursue 
with vindictive sword those whose ensign 
and idol are the sun. The Mohammedans 
seem to have been raised up in the retributive 
providence of God to execute his wrath upon 
all forms of idolatry, and the votaries of fire 
have not been spared. 

* Wilson’s Parsee Religion, p. 398. 



51 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II. 


The Parsees hold tenaciously by their 
creed and deity— 

“ As the sunflower turns to her god when he sets 
The same look which she gave when he rose.” 

Among the Parsees of India are many 
wealthy men, as merchants and bankers. As 
a class, they are much superior to the other 
natives, and are more loyal and faithful. 

The Sikhs are confined to the Punjaub; 
their religion is modern, and is a mixture of 
Mohammedanism and Brahminism. The Sikh 
people hate both, and are ever ready to arm 
against the Hindoos and Mohammedans, 
whose ascendancy they dread much more 
than that of the British. Before the conquest 
of the Punjaub, the Sikh country was go¬ 
verned by a sort of theocracy. The nation 
was the Khalsa, or church. The maharajah 
was head over both. The Maharajah Dhuleep 
Singh is nowin England; and since the con¬ 
quest of his territory for crimes in which he 
had no part, he has been a loyal British sub¬ 
ject, as also he is an accomplished gentleman 
and sincere Christian. Dr. Sir William Logan 
is the agent of the East India Company to 
whose care in this country the maharajah is 
committed, and who participates in those en¬ 
lightened principles which his illustrious and 
amiable charge has happily espoused. 

Such are the heathen systems of India. A 
writer in a recent number of Blackwood's 
Magazine remarks—“ Polytheism, and its 
never-failing attendant, idolatry, which in 
modern times disappeared so much from the 
face of the earth, still exist in pristine vigour 
in the Indian peninsula.” Unhappily there 
are large portions of the face of the earth 
where polytheism and idolatry still prevail; 
but the opinion is a just one, that it is in the 
Indian peninsula that both polytheism and 
idolatry prevail in pristine force. However 
erroneous the doctrine may be that the wor¬ 
ship of idols necessarily attends polytheism, 
it is a sequence so general as to justify 
the inference that where the one prevails the 
other will probably exist. The same writer 
justly observes that had the Jewish people, in 
the days of monotheistic orthodoxy, known 
the idolatry of India, their prophets would 
have uttered still more terrible anathemas 
against it than they uttered against the 
systems of surrounding nations. “ The low¬ 
lands of Tyre and Philistia might bow to the 
false gods of Dagon; the banks of Abana and 
Pharpar, and the groves of the Orontes, 
might be gay with the licentious rites of 
Ashtaroth; memories of the gods of Egypt 
stood recorded in the Pentateuch; and in 
the dark hours of the captivity the Hebrews 
looked with heightened hatred upon the 


nobler symbol-worship of Assyria; but not 
Assyria and Egypt combined would have 
equalled that stupendous development of 
paganism and idolatry which still exists as a 
spectacle for man’s humiliation in India.” 
It is, however, some relief to this picture 
that the progressive character of Hindoo ido¬ 
latry seems to have ceased. The doctrine of 
development, so great a favourite with the 
doctors of the Christian Church when desirous 
to defend or commend some favourite heresy, 
was a prevalent one among the ministers of 
Indian idolatries. The systems accordingly 
went on developing themselves, until the 
cumbrous structures of ethics and devotion, 
raised by the adventurous casuists and theo¬ 
rists, became too ponderous to bear fur¬ 
ther accumulation. There are few new 
temples erecting for any of the systems of 
idolatry in India ; and the existing tem¬ 
ples, of whatever style—whether the rock 
temples of the ghauts, or the lofty domed 
topes of Ceylon, dedicated to Buddha, or 
the “tall elliptical temples of Orissa,” the 
glory of Juggernaut—are barely preserved 
in repair. No new accessions of gods or 
shrines seem to be now made; and there is 
in this a sign strikingly indicative that the 
idolatry of India has reached its culminating 
point, and that the depraved imagination of 
its people has reached the extent of its crea¬ 
tive power in the department of polytheistic 
idolatry. Indeed, the land is covered with 
temples: in Conjeveram alone there are one 
hundred and twenty-five edifices devoted 
to idols, of which the horrid god Siva has 
one hundred and eight. 

Long since there seemed to be a cessation 
of progress in the invention of gods and 
erection of temples, there yet continued a 
minor activity of the imagination in devis¬ 
ing representations of the previously recog¬ 
nised deities. The makers of idols were 
numerous; in all the cities and villages the 
craftsmen might be seen idol-malting. The 
manufacture was as varied as extensive. Gods 
for an English halfpenny or an Indian rupee 
could be obtained, according to the quality 
of the image ; but if the idols obtained conse¬ 
cration, then the price was rather according 
to the quality of the god. Consecrated, and 
even unconsecrated idols, were purchased by 
the rich at a great cost. The consecration, 
as to its costliness, depends upon the popu¬ 
larity of the deity, which generally involves 
a greater number of texts, prayers, and cere¬ 
monies in proportion as the god has a great 
reputation. The idol finally, in most cases, 
receives a sort of baptism in the Ganges, and 
becomes a proper household god. Deities of 
this sort, made of gold and silver, executed 




Chap. II.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


55 


in a superior manner, and richly decorated 
with precious stones, are to he found in the 
houses of the wealthy. It is observable, 
however, that the progressive character of 
this god-manufacture, which produced such 
countless varieties of representations, has 
received a check. The carving, sculpture, 
and architecture of Hindoo, Jain, Buddhist, 
and Gheber, have to a great extent lost their 
originality,—nor is there the same inclination 
to bestow large sums on household images. It 
is impossible not to regard this fact as hopeful, 
in forming an opinion of the prospects of the 
heathen religions of India. 

In all the pagan superstitions of the penin- 
srda the doctrines of penance, as an expiation 
of sin, and of self-torture, for the purpose of 
raising human nature to the divine, are held. 
To such an extent is this carried, that, whether 
Buddhist, Jain, or Brahmin, all hope to rise 
to a god-like existence hereafter, by making 
their existence, for the most part, miserable 
here. A clergyman well acquainted with 
India describes this process as leading to the 
following absurd and degrading exhibitions : 
—“ Some were interred, others, with the head 
downwards, the legs, from the knees, remain¬ 
ing above ground; some sat on iron spikes; 
others performed the penance of the five fires, 
being seated in the midst of four, while the 
burning sun poured its rays upon the naked 
head.” * 

Another feature common to the heathenism 
of India is licentiousness. The doctrines of 
Buddha, as professed by Buddhists proper 
and by Jains, are adverse to this, hut so also 
are the doctrines of pure Brahminism. The 
practice over all India, and under all its 
superstitions, is, however, at variance with 
the better ethics of the religious theories 
.which are professed. Various superstitious 
reasons are found for a licentiousness the 
most abominable; whatever the moral philo¬ 
sophy pervading the creeds, the low charac¬ 
ter of the deities degrades the worshippers 
and the worship, and inspires impurity. In 
Bruce’s Sights and Scenes in the East, a de¬ 
scription is given of the voluptuous dances 
before the idol of the goddess Durga, such as 
ought to silence the European apologists for 
the “innocent superstitions of the East.” In 
the hills, among the Khonds, intoxication is 
indulged as a stimulus to lasciviousness, which 
is supposed to be acceptable to the “earth 
goddess,” who bears various names. 

Among the false religions of India, Mo¬ 
hammedanism holds a prominent ‘place—- 
not so much from the numerical proportion 
of its votaries, as from their relative power. 

* The Land of the Vedas, by the Rev. P. Per¬ 
ceval. 


In another publication* the author of this 
History gave a summary of the history and 
religion of Mohammed, so concise and com¬ 
plete as to suit this account of the religions 
of India. 

Mohammedanism is summed up in this 
sentence—“ There is one God, and Mo¬ 
hammed is his prophet.” Early in the 
seventh century an Arabian enthusiast con¬ 
ceived the idea of a reformation among his 
pagan countrymen. It appears that he was 
moved by patriotic and conscientious motives. 
In his inquiries and reflections he became 
tolerably acquainted with the Christian and 
Jewish scriptures, the inspiration of which 
he did not fully recognise, or formed only 
vague notions of its nature and character. 
To the Jews he took an aversion on account 
of their venality, intolerance, and pride of 
race. The Christians did not exemplify their 
religion any better than the Jews did theirs; 
and as he became estranged from the idolatry 
of his fathers, he was increasingly shocked 
by the idolatry of the Christians, and con¬ 
cluded that theirs could not be the ultimate 
faith of the servants of God in this world. 
Thus reasoning, he became as zealous to 
overthrow the idolatry of the Christian altars 
as that of the pagan, which once he served 
and finding some to sympathise with him iu 
his views of the simplicity of worship and 
the unity of God, he conceived the idea of a 
great reformation. So plain did the amount 
of truth he had gathered appear to him, that 
he could not believe in any sincere resistance 
to it; and reasoning like other bigots before 
and since, that he who opposed truth opposed 
God, and ought to be punished, the doctrine 
of force became an essential part of his 
system. He soon found obstacles from pagans, 
Jews, and Christians, not to be surmounted 
without address, and he resorted to policy 
and pious frauds akin to such as he perceived 
to be so successful in the hands of pagan and 
Christian priests, and Jewish rabbis. Here 
the faithful historian becomes baffled in his 
attempts to discover where sincerity ends 
and imposture begins, and where the strong 
man’s mental vision becomes itself deranged 
in the tumults of his imaginations, his pro¬ 
jects, and his sufferings. And as success 
crowned his deeds and misdeeds, his sincere 
iconoclasm, love of justice, and earnest pro¬ 
mulgation of fundamental religious truth, 
become more inextricably mingled with signs 
of mental aberration, all-devouring ambition, 
and cunning imposture. 

* Nolan’s Illustrated History of the War against 
Russia. London:. J. S. Virtue, City Road and Ivy 
Lane. Dedicated by permission to His Royal Highness 
the Duke of Cambridge. 



56 


HISTORY OP THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II. 


It is the habit of writers to treat of the 
life of Mohammed with as much of the odium 
theologicum as would season the keenest 
ecclesiastical controversy; and he is praised, 
and the Koran, which he professed to give 
by inspiration, is lauded as a literary and 
ethical miracle, or he is denounced as an un¬ 
mitigated impostor, and his book as a farago 
of nonsense and fraud. The book, however, 
was very much in character with the man— 
with a man of strong mind, of ambitious 
enterprise—a religious reformer in. a dark 
age, ignorant of the Gospel, willing to do a 
supposed good by deceptive means, feigning 
an inspiration he did not feel, and fancying 
an inspiration that was not real. Thus con¬ 
stituted and actuated, he propounded, as the 
book of a prophet, that which was only the 
dream or the device of a fanatic. It is likely 
that Jewish and Christian aid were afforded 
him in its composition, and that aid none of 
the best. He succeeded among an imagina¬ 
tive people by the overwhelming force of his 
imagination, among a simple people by the 
amazing directness of his object, among a 
brave people by his unexampled intrepidity, 
amongst a roving people by his passion for 
adventure, and in a superstitious and ignorant 
age by the display of superior knowledge 
and more sacred pretensions than other men, 
and withal by a deep sympathy with the 
current prejudices of his race and of huma¬ 
nity. He taught that Moses ■was a prophet, 
the forerunner of Christ, and Christ a pro¬ 
phet, the forerunner of himself; he supposed, 
or affected to believe, that he was the pro¬ 
mised Comforter—the Paraclete foretold by 
Christ as the teacher of all things, and the 
consummator of divine revelation. 

The ecclesiastical system of Mohammed is 
simple. Other religions are tolerated, this is 
established. It is a religion without a priest¬ 
hood ; no sacrifices bleed within its temples, 
and no altars are reared. Its ministers are 
rulers and doctors; they govern the faithful 
according to the Koran, offer devotions, and 
instruct. Within the mosque all believers 
may pray, even aloud, but only believers 
must enter. To proselyte to the true faith is 
a virtue, if disdain for the infidel does not 
.operate as a bar to the effort. To abandon 
the true faith is sacrilege, and its penalty 
death. Even the proselyte who apostatizes 
dies. 

I The social condition of the people who 
profess it is formed by their religion and 
their political institutions, as, indeed, is the 
case with all nations, whatever their creed. 

The Mohammedans of India differ very 
much from their brethren in Western and 
Northern Asia, as well as from those in 


Europe and Africa. Everywhere else, except 
so far as sectarian differences divide, the fea¬ 
tures of Mohammedan faith and character 
possess a clear identity; in India they are so 
modified by caste, and by the heathenism 
which holds so tenaciously its position, that 
Indo-Mohammedanism has a distinctive cha¬ 
racter. The various inroads of the Prophet’s 
followers were followed by extensive efforts 
at proselytism; force, guile, and gold, were 
all freely used to bring over the heathen to 
Islam; and all were so far successful, that 
multitudes joined, bearing into their new 
circle of religious fellowship the love, and, as 
far as possible, the practice of their old super¬ 
stitions. The result has been that while the 
Mohammedan and heathen populations hate 
one another, and the monotheism of the fol¬ 
lowers of the Prophet is rigid and uncompro¬ 
mising, they yet adopt castes and customs 
that are Brahminical, and which give to the 
social life of the Indo-Mohammedans pecu¬ 
liarities of character very dissimilar from 
those of their fellow-disciples elsewhere. 
The Patans and Affghans retain the simpler 
and sterner service of the old faith, but in 
Southern Hindoostan so strong a leaven of 
pagan custom has insinuated itself into the 
social life of Mohammedans, that but for their 
pure theism they might be mistaken for 
Hindoos. The festivals of Mohammedan 
India strikingly illustrate this; no Turk, or 
even Affghan, would take part in scenes of 
such levity. Even fasts and solemnities (so- 
called) assume much of the wild and exube¬ 
rant gaiety which characterises the festivals 
of the Hindoos. Processions, garlands, pyro¬ 
technic displays, &c., mark these occasions. 
The boat processions on the Ganges by night 
are scenes of remarkable beauty and bois¬ 
terous mirth. On these occasions rafts are 
towed along, bearing fantastic palaces, towers, 
pagodas, triumphal arches, all hung with 
brilliant lamps, while rockets shoot up in 
glittering flight, and the ruffled waters gleam 
in the broken reflections of the many-coloured 
lamps and artificial fires. The Hindoos 
crowd the river’s bank, utter their joyous 
acclamations, beat their rude drums, and 
express their excited sympathy.* It is the 
political action, and what they deem cere¬ 
monial uncleanness of the Islamites, that 
excite in the high caste Hindoos repugnance 
to Mohammedans. Where the latter, by 
conformity to caste, and adoption of Hindoo 
customs, relax their antipathies to Hindooism, 
even the Brahmins give a certain countenance 
to their religious rites, especially their festivals. 
Whatever of their general character the Mo¬ 
hammedans of India have lost, they retain the 
* Missionary reports. 




CHAr. II.l 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


fierce intolerance which they everywhere 
else exhibit, and the desire to attain power as 
a religious duty, by means no matter how 
repulsive and sanguinary. Tyrants every¬ 
where, they are in India as despotic as the 
genius of their creed might be supposed to 
make them, and their history on every stage 
exhibits them. 

Besides heathens and Mohammedans, there 
are Jews in India. The Beni-Israel consti¬ 
tute an interesting class. They are a rem¬ 
nant of the ten tribes carried away in the 
great and final captivity. They are, how¬ 
ever, too inconsiderable in number or influ¬ 
ence to require notice at any length in this 
place. 

There are Christians of various oriental 
sects among the population of the peninsula. 
Most of these hold opinions obscured by 
superstition. There are Armenian, Copt, 
and Syrian Christians. The last-named are 
most numerous, and allege themselves to be 
disciples of St. Thomas the apostle. 

There are many Roman Catholics among 
the natives, in the portions of the country 
where the Portuguese and French settled. 
The Jesuits of the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries put forth extraordinary efforts to 
make proselytes. Many of their modes of 
procedure were most praiseworthy; they 
studied the languages of the people with 
indefatigable industry, and exposed them¬ 
selves fearlessly to the climate, and to every 
hardship necessary to their great task. Some 
of their proceedings cannot be too much cen¬ 
sured. They pretended to be Brahmins of 
the highest caste, having in their own coun¬ 
try enjoyed the religion of the Vedas. They 
accordingly assumed the dress and modes of 
living of the “ Suniassi,” the most perfect 
order of the Brahmins in those days, and 
united with them in ceremonies which no 
enlightened and honest conscience could 
allow its possessor to participate. Where 
guile failed, force was resorted to, and the 
history of the inquisition at Goa is as hor¬ 
rible as that of Juggernaut at Orissa,—at all 
events, when we recollect that the cruel and 
sanguinary deeds done in connection with 
the former were in the name of the all-mer¬ 
ciful Saviour. The native Roman Catholic 
population, except at Pondicherry, where 
they are under the instruction of enlightened 
French priests, is as degraded as that of the 
Mohammedans and heathens. The Portu¬ 
guese erected many fine churches, the ruins of 
which alone remain. At Goa, Bassein, Chaul, 
and various other places, extensive ruins of 
this description exist. Dr. Taylor affirms 
that such remains at Bassein are comparable 
to those of Pompeii. 

VOL. i. 


57 

The early Protestant missionaries do not 
appear to have been very successful, but they 
refrained from all deceptive methods, such as 
the Jesuits adopted to make proselytes. The 
Dutch, however, although they avoided the 
affectation of sympathy with the Brahmins, 
which the Jesuits assumed, yet, like them, 
they resorted to persecution, but of a much 
milder form. Bribery, however, they prac¬ 
tised in common with the Jesuits, refusing 
all civil offices, however unimportant, to 
natives, unless they submitted to baptism. 
Numbers complied, and made an ostensible 
profession of Christianity for the advantages 
which they derived, but fell away as soon as 
these temporal benefits were withdrawn. A 
writer, who imparts his own religious pre¬ 
judices into his relation of the missionary 
history of India, remarks with an air of 
triumph—“The descendants of the Jesuit 
and Presbyterian converts have long since 
disappeared from the land, and are only 
remembered in musty ecclesiastical records.” * 
To whatever extent this may be true of the 
descendants of the proselytes made by the 
Dutch, it is not correct as to those made by 
the Jesuits, whose numbers are still consider¬ 
able. 

The first Protestant missionary was sent 
to India in 1705, under the auspices of the 
King of Denmark. He established himself 
at Tranquebar, then a Danish settlement, 
where he founded a church and school, and 
laboured with assiduity and' zeal, which were 
attended with partial success. Schwartz, 
and other like-minded men, under the aus¬ 
pices of Denmark, preached the gospel in 
India, and promoted Christian education, 
with gradually-increasing advantage, during 
the first half of the eighteenth century. At 
the close of that period, Kiemander was em¬ 
ployed by the Society for promoting Chris¬ 
tian Knowledge. He established a school at 
Cuddapore, in the presidency of Madras, and 
laboured there for eight years, with some 
fruits attending his ministry; but found that, 
at every step, caste was the grand obstruction 
to the gospel. In 1758, he proceeded to 
Calcutta, and organised there more efficient 
means of conducting his enterprise. In 
1770 he erected a church, and soon had 
several hundred native children, and some 
adults, in attendance. Towards the close of 
the century, William Carey, a native of 
Northamptonshire, a baptist minister, pro¬ 
ceeded to Calcutta, where he attempted to 
preach the gospel and establish schools; but 
so fierce w r as the opposition of the East India 
Company to him, that he was obliged to take 
refuge in Serampore, under the protection of 
* Capper, p. 442. 

L 



58 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. IT. 


Denmark—the government of that country 
was then more favourable than that of Eng¬ 
land to religious efforts for the enlighten¬ 
ment of the heathen, and Mr. Carey received 
protection, encouragement, and support. Mr. 
Carey being a man of most determined will, 
and believing that he was in the path of duty, 
persevered in his efforts to do good to the 
natives, and to conquer the opposition of the 
East India Company. His educational efforts 
at Serampore were very successful, and he 
was so upheld by the religious community in 
England, that the company became partly 
ashamed and partly afraid in connection with 
their hostility to missions. Mr. Carey be¬ 
came even an influential man at Calcutta, for 
the gifted Marquis of Wellesley was so sen¬ 
sible of his moral worth, knowledge of India, 
remarkable good sense, and extensive ac¬ 
quirements, that he appointed the invincible 
missionary to a professorship in the College 
of Fort William. 

At this juncture, the East India Company 
supported the Hindoo idolatry by public 
grants of money, and in every conceivable 
way trimmed to the Brahmins. Even in the 
educational institutions of the company there 
seemed a greater desire to foster the religion 
of the Hindoos than of Christ: happily, such 
a spirit has passed away from that body, but 
it was long and obstinately fostered, and, at 
the period when the Serampore mission 
began its work, and for long after, remained 
in full force. In the year 1793, the renewal 
of the company’s charter came before the 
Houses of Parliament, and a formidable oppo¬ 
sition to the religious policy of that body was 
organised. Mr. Wilberforce, although bigot- 
edly hostile to the repeal of the corporation 
and test acts, was a strenuous friend to the 
baptist missions, and to all evangelical efforts 
among the heathen. He succeeded in passing 
a series of resolutions, that missionaries and 
schoolmasters should be provided for the 
Christian instruction of the natives of India. 
The resolutions were, however, impracticable. 
They were not cordially supported by the 
religious public of England, nor by the 
“ voluntary ” missionary societies. All per¬ 
sons who had an extensive acquaintance with 
India, declared that such measures “went 
too fast and too far,” and would, if practically 
attempted, excite opposition on the part of 
the natives of a formidable character, espe¬ 
cially as the agents of Roman Catholic 
powers would not fail to represent the move¬ 
ment to the natives in the light of a forcible 
interference with their religion. These views, 
the want of unanimous support on the part of 
the friends of missions, and the remonstrances 
of the company, caused the government to 


hesitate in adopting such a policy, and the 
resolutions remained in abeyance. It was 
generally believed that the government 
yielded to the influence of Mr. Wilberforce 
in the Commons, but never intended to act 
upon his views. It soon became known in 
India that the resolutions of Wilberforce 
were not to be carried out, and a renewed 
and fierce persecution against the Serampore 
mission was the result. Its tracts wets 
called in and burnt by order of the governof 
in council, who also prohibited the printing 
of any books whatever in the Danish settle¬ 
ments by English subjects. The British 
Christian missionaries were not understood 
by the governor or council; and they might 
as well have sought to prohibit by law the 
blowing of the monsoons. The Serampore 
mission took no heed to the interdicts of the 
anti-gospel confederacy at Calcutta, and the 
few Christian ministers in that city pursued 
their labours with unabated zeal. The go¬ 
vernor and council became enraged at this 
obstinacy, and prohibited all preaching to the 
natives, and the issuing of all books or tracts 
having a tendency to make proselytes to the 
Christian religion. The conduct of the 
government was more befitting a club of 
atheists, than a council of men professing to be 
Christians. The person then presiding over 
the councils of India was Lord Minto. He 
was not only the bitter enemy of the exten¬ 
sion of the Christian religion by even the 
most fair, honourable, and politic means, but 
he was the patron of Hindoo “laws, litera¬ 
ture, and religion.” He was a bad politician, 
and a worse Christian. As devil-worship is 
a part of the religion of India, it is no exag¬ 
geration to say that the noble lord would have 
patronised the worship of the devil to promote 
his ill-conceived policy. The government at 
home was not, however, much more honest* 
earnest, or enlightened on religious subjects 
than his lordship: he, on the whole, very 
fairly represented them. 

In 1799, the Serampore mission was re¬ 
inforced by a fresh accession of missionaries; 
money, printing-presses, and various othet 
instrumentality of usefulness were liberally 
sent to it from England, and the edicts of the 
governor-general and his council produced 
no more effect upon its plans and purposes 
than upon the waters of the Indian Ocean. 
The good work went on, and the moral influ¬ 
ence of the friends of the missionaries in 
England became too powerful for the govern¬ 
ment. In 1813, the consent of parliament 
was obtained for ecclesiastical establishments 
according to the English and Scottish churches. 
In the reign of William III. promise had been 
made that chaplains should be provided, and 




Chap. II.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


59 


that they should he instructed in the lan¬ 
guages of the people, in order to facilitate 
their usefulness. The government in 1813 
was only returning to the principles espoused 
a century and a quarter before by the hero of 
the revolution. 

The first bishop of the Church of England 
who was appointed in virtue of the new order 
of things was Dr. Middleton. At the close of 
1814, he accepted all India as his diocese. 
On his arrival there he found fifteen chap¬ 
lains in Bengal, twelve in the presidency of 
Madras, and five in that of Bombay. He 
immediately appointed an archdeacon for 
each presidency, and increased the number 
of clergymen in them all. He patronised 
the Society for promoting Christian Know¬ 
ledge, and that for the Propagation of the 
Gospel. Under his auspices a mission college 
was founded in Calcutta. He died on the 
8 th of July, 1822, having laid the foundation 
for the modern episcopal church of British 
India. 

It was not difficult to find a suitable suc¬ 
cessor to Dr. Middleton, although many at 
the time believed it impossible. Eminently 
qualified men abounded in England then, as 
now, for any enterprise ; and provided there 
were impartiality in their selection, there could 
be no difficulty in obtaining such. The choice 
fell upon the amiable and gifted Heber, who 
arrived in Calcutta in October, 1823. In 
1824 he proceeded thence on a tour of inspec¬ 
tion through the upper provinces, returning 
by Bombay, Ceylon, and Madras. These 
journeys were of much importance to the 
religious interests of India, as information 
was obtained by which subsequent religious 
operations were guided. On April 2, 1826, 
while heated, this remarkable man took a 
cold bath, by which his life was suddenly 
terminated. His genius, piety, and useful¬ 
ness will ever be cherished in the memory of 
his country and the church of God. 

Heber was succeeded by Dr. Turner, who 
arrived at Calcutta in 1829, and died the 
year following. On the 7th of April, Dr. 
Daniel Wilson, rector of Islington, was ap¬ 
pointed Bishop of Calcutta, and reached the 
sphere of his labours early in October follow¬ 
ing. He had been a man of great popularity 
and usefulness as a parochial minister, and 
the promise which was thus excited as to his 
activity and zeal in India was fulfilled; he 
laboured for many years, visiting nearly 
every part of India, and, by his example and 
wisdom, stimulating and directing the zeal, 
not only of the ministers of his own church, 
but of the various other evangelical commu¬ 
nities, by all of whom he was respected and 
loved. If Dr. Wilson lays down his labours 


from ill health, he will, it is alleged, be suc¬ 
ceeded by his son, who has also held the 
rectory of Islington since his father’s promo¬ 
tion to the bishopric of Calcutta. 

When the East India Company’s charter 
was altered in 1834, it was arranged that two 
additional bishops should be appointed, one 
for Madras and one for Bombay. Dr. Corrie, 
the archdeacon of Madras, was nominated to 
that bishopric, after nearly thirty years’ resi¬ 
dence in India. He held his newly-acquired 
honour scarcely a year, w r hen he died, regret¬ 
ted by all the European inhabitants, not only 
of the presidency, but of India. Dr. Carr, 
the archdeacon of Bombay, was appointed to 
the new diocese in that presidency: he was 
installed in February, 1838, and resigned 
from ill health in 1851. 

In the arrangements of 1813, it was agreed 
that two clergymen of the Church of Scot¬ 
land should be appointed as chaplains in each 
presidency. This number has been since 
increased. 

The renewal of the company’s charter 
opened the way for all Christian missionaries 
in India, for the free circulation of the word 
of God, and of religious tracts and books. 
After forty years’ experience, it has been 
proved beyond controversy that the fears of 
free discussion entertained by the govern¬ 
ment were groundless, and that good has 
been produced, in proportion as the efforts of 
the missionaries were unconnected with go¬ 
vernment in any form. As Professor Wilson 
has clearly shown, the natives have no uncon¬ 
querable jealousy of the voluntary labours of 
missionaries ; it is of the action of government 
in that way that they are invariably jealous 
and vigilant. 

Missionaries now labour unimpeded by 
government in every part of India, and they 
have established educational institutions in 
which the young are trained in the know¬ 
ledge of Christ. This is the more important, 
as in the schools and colleges instituted by 
government the mention of Christianity is 
prohibited. No book is allowed within them 
in which Christ is named. If any of the 
pupils become converts to Christianity they 
are dismissed.* According to one authority, 
if any officer of a government college pen an 
article for a religious periodical, he is sub¬ 
jected to censure, perhaps to dismission. It 
is important, however angry the protests of 
many zealous men, that the government 
should refuse to identify itself with. prose- 
lytism; but if a native, whether in its col¬ 
leges, serving in its army, or numbered 
among its civil servants, chooses to avow 
Christianity, it is unjust to lay him therefore 
* Government Education in India, by W. Knighton, A.M. 



60 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II. 


under disqualifications. While the censors 
of the East India Company a-re eager to fix 
upon it the consequences of any error in its 
regulations to secure the appearance and 
reality of impartiality to the natives, they 
omit to show the many instances in which, of 
late years, missionary societies have been 
favoured and aided by the company, even at 
the hazard of a charge of partiality from 
other quarters. This has been more particu¬ 
larly the case in connection Avith the missions 
of the Established Church : the aid afforded 
to the Church Missionary Society in their 
educational efforts among the Santals is an 
instance. Soon after the suppression of the 
Santal insurrection of 1855, the director of 
instruction in Bengal addressed a letter to the 
corresponding committee of the Church Mis¬ 
sionary Society in Calcutta, stating that the 
government were willing to give liberal 
assistance for the establishment of schools 
among the Santals, if the society would un¬ 
dertake their establishment and management. 
The corresponding committee accepted the 
offer. After various communications respect¬ 
ing the proposed plan, the secretary to the 
government of India officially announced to 
the society, under date of November 28th, 
1856, the principle upon which all such 
grants would be made ; and the communica¬ 
tion furnishes a complete refutation of the 
alleged hostility of the company to the reli¬ 
gious education of the natives. What the 
company protests against is, even the sem¬ 
blance of proselytism in the government 
schools. 

“ The governor-general in council, viewing 
the proposed measure as a grant-in-aid to a 
missionary body for the secular education of 
an uncivilised tribe, considers it entirely in 
accordance with the views expressed in the 
honourable court’s despatch of the 19th of 
July, 1854, and differing in degree only, not 
in kind, from the grants already made to 
individual missionaries for like purposes with 
the honourable court’s full approbation and 
sanction. His lordship in council is of opi¬ 
nion that if the Church Missionary Society, 
or if any respectable person or body of per¬ 
sons, undertakes to establish good schools 
among the Santals, the government is bound 
to render very liberal assistance, in proportion 
to the extent to which the work may be 
carried, subject only to the inspection of the 
officers of the education department, and upon 
the condition that the government in no way 
interferes with the religious instruction given, 
and that the expense of such instruction is 
borne by those who impart it. His lordship 
in council accordingly sanctions the proposed 
scheme as a wise and perfectly legitimate 


application of the principle of grants-in-aid, 
and authorises the lieutenant-governor to 
carry it out forthwith.” 

The efforts of several of the missionary 
societies to commit the company to a course 
which the natives would regard as one of 
official proselytism have been frequent. Such 
a course the people of England are not pre¬ 
pared to support. The company goes as far 
as public opinion in England Avould justify, 
as the above official letter shows. That the 
conduct of the company in this matter is 
appreciated by the religious community of 
India attached to the Church of England is 
evident from the charge delivered by the 
Bishop of Madras, September 29th, 1856:— 
“The government ‘grants-in-aid’ will be of 
great service to the cause of missions. When 
it is considered that there are little less than 
twenty thousand young people under religious 
instruction, and how much the societies are 
crippled for want of means in imparting a 
thoroughly good education to these young 
people, I think you will agree with me that 
it will indeed be a seasonable and happy 
help.” * 

As soon as freedom of missionary effort 
was recognised, many societies sent forth 
labourers into the vast field. The folloAving 
is a list of the principal associations for this 
purpose:— 

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. 

The Church Missionary Society. 

The London Missionary Society. 

The Baptist Missionary Society. 

The General Baptist Missionary Society. 

The Scotch Church Missionary Society. 

The Free Church of Scotland Missionary Society. 

The Wesleyan Missionary Society. 

The American Missionary Society. 

The German Missionary Society. 

Dr. Cooke Taylor thus describes the cha ¬ 
racteristics of the labourers, and their labours: 
—“The chief characteristic of the mission¬ 
aries is the love of maximising and belauding 
all their own efforts, in order to secure the 
advantages of their position. Yet their suc¬ 
cess as preachers is not great, for it is difficult 
to induce the natives to adopt the systems of 
men who have no principle in common with 
themselves. The natives stand aloof, or if 
they approach the European padre, it is to 
receive a present—a bribe—or some particla 
of instruction on points of which they were 
previously ignorant.” 

Very seldom has a more unjust verdict ' 
been pronounced than this upon any men 
honestly engaged in a good work, and 
it can only be reconciled with the integrity 
of Dr. Taylor by supposing that he had given 
very inadequate attention to the subject upon 
* Church Missionary Record, July, 1857. 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


Chap. II J 

which he thus so decidedly pronounced. 
That there have been agents of some of the 
societies who effected little in India, and who 
clung to their positions there because they 
would never have obtained an equally respec¬ 
table ministerial' position at home, is, unhap¬ 
pily, certain. That such men should he 
tempted to colour their reports to the home 
directories is natural. No one will deny that 
this has occurred many times during the 
labours of the last half-century. But that it 
should have occurred so seldom is surprising, 
and that it should at all occur hereafter, is 
next to impossible, from the number in the 
field, the mutual contact of the agents of dif¬ 
ferent societies and sects, and the absolute 
certainty that the press of India would detect 
and expose misrepresentations of any kind. 
To describe as “ the chief characteristic of 
the missionaries” a desire to belaud them¬ 
selves or their labours—to distort or mis¬ 
state them in any way—is as gross a slander 
as ever was written by one who attained the 
reputation of impartiality. Many missionaries 
in India have taken too desponding a view of 
things. It has actually been “ the chief cha¬ 
racteristic of the missionaries” sent there to 
minimise, not to “maximise”—adopting Dr. 
Taylor’s own phraseology. A careful perusal 
of missionary letters and statements will prove 
this. The compilation of the home reports 
does not rest with the missionary, but with 
committees and secretaries in London; the 
missionary does not determine how few or 
how many of his own letters shall be given 
to the public, nor what extracts from any 
letter may be given or withheld. No doubt 
the peculiar constitution of the man, or his 
view of things on the whole, will influence a 
secretary in making these selections. He may 
deem it necessary to exclude the less hopeful 
views of his correspondent in the field of 
work, and in his own more sanguine tempera¬ 
ment select the more buoyant anticipations of 
the faithful labourer for the perusal of the 
members of the society. But the charge 
would not be just as against societies any 
more than as against missionaries, that there 
existed a disposition to give a false colour¬ 
ing, for venal or other personal purposes, 
to the experiences gleaned in the scene ol 
religious effort. A perusal of the reports of 
all the societies engaged in the noble cause will 
leave with any impartial man the conviction 
that the charge of Dr. Taylor, reiterated by 
so many others, is without foundation in fact. 

The amount of effort put forth by the 
religious societies previous to the revolt is a 
subject of great interest, not only to the 
Christian Church, but to the political and 
commercial world, influenced as governments 


fil 

and as commerce must ever be by the moral 
condition of the governed. 

The fifty-seventh report of the Church 
Missionary Society for Africa and the East 
affords the following interesting statistics :— 

BOMBAY AND WESTERN INDIA MISSION.* 

MISSION ESTABLISHMENT. 

13 Ordained European Missionaries. 

4 Ordained Native Missionaries. 

2 European Catechists and Teachers. 

1 European Female Teacher. 

2 East-Indian Teachers. 

5 Native Catechists and Readers. 

26 Native Assistants and Teachers. 

At Nasilc there is a native Christian colony 
and an industrial institution. Several young 
natives of education have been converted, 
and are disposed to be useful to their fellow- 
countrymen. 

SUMMARY OF THE BOMBAY AND WESTERN INDIA 
MISSION. 

Stations. 6 

Communicants. 73 

Native Christians. 260 

Schools, including the Robert-Money School . 28 

Scholars.1780 

CALCUTTA AND NORTH INDIA MISSION, f 

MISSION ESTABLISHMENT. 

45 Ordained European Missionaries. 

1 Ordained Native Missionary. 

6 European Catechists and Teachers. 

2 European Female Teachers. 

5 East-Indian Catechists and Teachers. 

33 Native Catechists. 

66 Native Scripture-Readers. 

307 Native Teachers and Schoolmasters. 

26 Native Schoolmistresses. 

The North India mission field occupies the 
greatest extent of country, and numbers the 
largest staff of European missionaries of any 
of the society’s missions. The distance be¬ 
tween its extreme stations is fifteen hundred 
miles; but by the wonderful facilities ot 
modern intercommunication the whole district 
will soon be traversed in a few days, as a 
message is even now sent in a few minutes. 

SUMMARY OF THE CALCUTTA AND NORTH INDIA 
MISSION. 


Stations. 27 

Communicants.1119 

Native Christians. 7409 

Seminaries and Schools. 119 

Seminarists and Scholars. 7027 


MADRAS AND SOUTH INDIA MISSION. ± 

MISSION ESTABLISHMENT. 

33 Ordained European Missionaries. 

3 Ordained East-Indian Missionaries. 


* European missionaries first arrived in 1820. 
r European missionaries first arrived in 1816. 
+ European missionaries first arrived in 1814. 














62 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II. 


15 Ordained Native Missionaries. 

8 European Catecliists and Teachers. 

2 European Printers and Agents. 

2 European Eemale Teachers. 

8 East-Indian Catechists and Teachers. 

2 East-Indian Female Teachers. 

70 Native Catechists. 

171 Native Scripture-Readers. 

374 Native Teachers and Schoolmasters. 

106 Native Schoolmistresses. 

The statistical tables of the South India 
mission at the close of the year 1856 exhibited 
a very gratifying result; while there was a 
steady increase in the number of the baptised 
converts, and in the number of communicants, 
there had also been a large accession of more 
than two thousand to the number of those 
who had renounced idolatry, and placed 
themselves under Christian instruction. The 
whole number of converts, baptised and un¬ 
baptised, had risen from 33,121 to 35,799. 
The communicants had increased from 5201 
to 5344. In the number of school children 
there had been a small decrease, from 11,617 
to 11,294, in consequence of the introduction 
of fees. 

SUMMARY OP THE MADRAS AND SOUTH INDIA MISSION. 

Stations. 27 

Communicants. 5,344 

Seminaries and Schools. 451 

Seminarists and Scholars ....... 11,060 

Natives under Christian instruction— 

Baptised. 23,398 

Unbaptised.12,401 

- 35,799 

CEYLON MISSION.* 

MISSION ESTABLISHMENT. 

9 Ordained European Missionaries. 

2 Ordained Native Missionaries. 

3 European Catechists and Teachers. 

31 Native Catechists. 

4 Native Scripture-Readers. 

78 Native Teachers and Schoolmasters. 

28 Native Schoolmistresses. 

SUMMARY OF THE CEYLON MISSION. 

Stations. 7 

Communicants. 364 

Schools, including Cotta Institution ... 87 

Seminarists and Scholars. 2959 

Native Christians. 2344 

The London Missionary Society, chiefly 
sustained and served by congregationalists, 
was among the earliest in the path of mis¬ 
sionary labour, and selected India as one of 
the fields of its benevolent enterprise. At 
present its efforts there may be statistically 
represented by the following statement:— 

NORTHERN INDIA. 


Churches .. 8 

Communicants. 200 


Juvenile Day and Boarding Schools, and other 


Educational Institutions. 28 

Scholars receiving Education in the Society’s 

Seminaries.2211 

PENINSULAR INDIA. 

Churches. 12 

Communicants. 551 

Schools, &c. 95 

Scholars.4118 

TRAVANCORE. 

Churches. 7 

Communicants. 937 

Schools. 211 

Scholars. 7000 


The missionaries are not quite so numerous 
as the churches, but ministers and native 
teachers, computed together, considerably 
exceed the members of such Christian assem¬ 
blies. The society, by its constitution, cannot 
receive government support even for its edu¬ 
cational agencies, but individual members of 
the government have been its liberal contri¬ 
butors. Mr. Colvin, late governor of the 
north-west provinces, was a supporter of the 
schools at Benares, and Lord Harris, the 
governor of Madras, presided at the last 
annual examination of the society’s educa¬ 
tional institution in the capital of that presi¬ 
dency. 

The Wesleyan Missionary Society conducts 
important operations in India. According to 
its last annual report, it extensively employs 
native Christians as catechists, and even as 
ministers. 

The Baptists, as previously shown, were 
the first British missionaries to devote atten¬ 
tion to India. Smaller in numbers, and weaker 
in resources than the great bodies whose 
labours are shown in the foregoing tables, 
they do not employ so many agents as either 
of them;, but their work has been most ho¬ 
nourable ; they bravely pioneered the way for 
others, and the names of Carey and Marsh - 
man (father-in-law of the gallant Havelock of 
Lucknow) will ever be held in honour as 
amongst the best benefactors of India. 

The Scottish missionary societies are also 
inferior in resources to the great English 
societies ; but Dr. Duff and other eminent men 
have gone forth from them, and rendered great 
service to the cause of Christian education. 

The churches of the United States of 
America have been also zealous in efforts to 
extend the gospel in India. The Presbyte¬ 
rian board of foreign missions alone has thirty 
missionaries there, and several hundred native 
families are attached to their communion in 
the north-west provinces. 

For a considerable number of years, ver¬ 
sions of the Bible, and of portions of the Bible, 
in the various languages and dialects of India 


* European missionaries first arrived in 1818. 





























IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


63 


Ciiap. II.] 

have been in circulation, and lately, renewed 
and vigorous exertion has been put forth 
to secure correct translations by men eminent 
in their reputation for knowledge of these 
languages. The following is the society’s 
report as to the auxiliaries in India, and 
the number of copies which each has distri¬ 
buted :— 


Calcutta Bible Society, instituted 1811 . 919,350 

Serampore Missionaries. 200,000 

North India Bible Society, at Agra, in¬ 
stituted 1845 . 75,528 

Madras Bible Society, instituted 1820 . . 1,028,996 
Bombay Bible Society, instituted 1813 . 222,718 

Colombo Bible Society, instituted 1812, 

with various Branches in Ceylon . . 42,605 

Jaffna Bible Society.. 113,115 

The Religious Tract Society has sent 


gratuitously, or sold at reduced prices, copies 
of works in the various languages of India, 
which are supposed to be written on subjects 
most calculated to draw the attention of the 
natives to the great themes of the Christian 
religion. It is remarkable that all these 
societies work in the most complete harmony. 
British, Americans, and Germans, whatever 
their nationality ; churchmen and dissenters, 
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregation- 
alists, Methodists, whatever their sect, are 
one in spirit for the great work of evange¬ 
lising the heathen. That an extensive in¬ 
fluence is being produced is obvious to all 
observers capable of forming an opinion. 
Many of the natives are beginning to inquire; 
and there are symptoms in the decay of old 
institutions, that the cumbrous fabrics of idol¬ 
atry are beginning to give way. Christianity 
is operating among them in two ways; it 
exhibits its own glorious life amidst the de¬ 
cadence of antique idolatries, they grow old, 
and are stricken by the touch of ever-chang¬ 
ing time, while Christianity puts forth the 
vitality and vigour of perennial youth; and 
while it is itself lifeful, and healthful as it 
is beautiful, it is gradually contributing to 
the decay of all the old superstitions that yet 
stand in ponderous and gloomy magnitude 
around it. The beautiful banyan-tree grows 
and thrives amidst ruins, the dilapidation 
of which it hastens; flourishing in its 
bloom above the time-smitten temple or 
pagoda, it strikes its roots beneath their foun¬ 
dations, and at last brings the proud trophies 
of past ages in rubbish around it. Such will 
be the history of Christianity in India. The 
idol-cars and temples will be shattered, and 
known only in the memory of the mischiefs 
they created, while the imperishable truth of 
God triumphs. It is the decree of God %r 
India and for every land, “Magna e&t veritas 
prevalebit.” 


LANGUAGES, LITERATURE, &c. 

The languages of India are numerous, 
and in the hill countries, among the wild 
and but partially subdued tribes already 
noticed, those spoken are scarcely known to 
Europeans. There are no books extant in 
those tongues, nor are they even organised, 
their character and construction being as little 
known to intelligent Indians as to English. 

The ancient language of India, at all events 
of the prevailing race, was Sanscrit, which, as 
all scholars are aware, is one of the most 
ancient in the world. It is probably as old as 
the date of the confusion of tongues at Babel. 
From the Sanscrit the Indo-European family 
of languages is mainly derived. The lan¬ 
guages of southern India are not, however, 
derived from that stock. The Tamil is sup¬ 
posed to be the oldest of these. There are 
Sanscrit derivatives in them all, but not to a 
great extent. The great antiquity of the 
Sanscrit may be illustrated by the circum¬ 
stance that the Hymns of the Rigveda are 
asserted by the great Sanscrit scholar, Pro¬ 
fessor Wilson, to have been written at least 
fifteen centuries prior to the Christian era, 
so they may be even as ancient as the writings 
of Moses. A more complete and compre¬ 
hensive study of the languages of India and 
the neighbouring countries is a desideratum 
not only for the enrichment of philological 
learning, but as important to ethnological 
inquiry. One of the greatest of living philo¬ 
sophers has written :—“ Languages compared 
together, and considered as objects of the 
natural history of the mind, and when sepa¬ 
rated into families according to the analogies 
existing in their internal structure, have be¬ 
come a rich source of historical knowledge ; 
and this is probably one of the most brilliant 
results of modern study in the last sixty or 
seventy years. From the very fact of their 
being products of the intellectual force of 
mankind, they lead us, by means of the ele¬ 
ments of their organism, into an obscure dis¬ 
tance, unreached by traditionary records. 
The comparative study of languages shows us 
that races now separated by vast tracts of 
land are allied together, and have migrated 
from one common primitive seat; it indicates 
the course and direction of all migrations, and. 
in tracing the leading epochs of development, 
recognises, by means of the more or less 
changed structure of the language, in the 
permanence of certain forms, or in the more 
or less advanced destruction of the formative 
system, which race has retained most nearly 
the language common to all who had emi¬ 
grated from the general seat of origin.”* 

* Cosrros: Otte’s translation, yol. ii. p. 471. 






HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II. 


(U 


Of tbs three distinct families into which 
the languages of the world are divided by 
philologists—the Semitic, the Japhetic, or 
Indo-European (called also Iranian and 
Arian), and the Hamitic—the Sanscrit is 
identified with the second. Most profound 
philologists concur in deriving these three 
families of languages from a common origin, 
which is supposed to be lost. The Chevalier 
Bunsen describes the Iranian “ stock,” or 
family of languages, as having eight more or 
less extensive branches. The first and most 
ancient he considers to be the Celtic; the 
second, the Thracian or Illyrian; the third, 
the Armenian; the fourth, the Iranian or 
Arian; the fifth, the Greek and Roman; 
the sixth, the Sclavonic. 

The class to which the most eminent lan¬ 
guages of India and Persia belong is, accord¬ 
ing to the chevalier, only fourth on the list as 
to antiquity. His remarks on this subject 
are as interesting as appropriate. “The 
fourth formation we propose to call the Arian,* 
or the Iranian, as presented in Iran proper. 
Here we must establish two great subdivi¬ 
sions : the one comprises the nations of Iran 
proper, or the Arian stock, the languages of 
Media and Persia. Its most primitive repre¬ 
sentative is the Zend. We designate by this 
name both the language of the most ancient 
cuneiform inscriptions (or Persian inscriptions 
in Assyrian characters) of the sixth and fifth 
century, b.c., and that of the ancient parts of 
the Zend-Avesta, or the sacred books of the 
Parsees, as explained by Burnouf and Lassen. 
We take the one as the latest specimen of the 
western dialect of the ancient Persian and 
Median (for the two nations had one tongue), 
in its evanescent state, as a dead language ; 
the other as an ancient specimen of its eastern 
dialect, preserved for ages by tradition, and 
therefore not quite pure in its vocalism, but 
most complete in its system of forms. The 
younger representatives of the Persian lan¬ 
guage are the Pehlevi (the language of the 
Sassanians) and the Pazend, the mother of 
the present, or modern Persian tongue, which 
is represented in its purity by Ferdusi, about 
the year 1000 [of our era]. The Pushtu, or 
language of the Affghans, belongs to the same 
branch. The second subdivision embraces 
the Arian languages of India, represented by 
the Sanscrit and its daughters.” f 

Dr. Max Muller considers the languages 
which are spoken by many of the nations 
around India as derived from the Chinese. 
He describes the Tartaric branch as having 

* He uses the words Arian and Iranian both in a 
generic and specific 3ense. 

f Outlines of the Philosophy of Universal History 
applied to Language and Religion, vol. ii. p. 6. 


spread in a northern, and the Bhotya in a 
southern direction : “ the former spreading 
.through Asia towards the European penin¬ 
sula, and the seats of political civilisation; 
the latter tending toward the Indian penin - 
sula, and encircling the native land of the 
Brahmanic Arians.” Upon this the Cheva¬ 
lier Bunsen observes :—“ The study of the 
Tibetan or Bhotya language, and that of the 
Burmese, offers the nearest link between 
the Chinese and the more recent formations ; 
but even a comparison of Sanscrit roots is 
indicated by our method. For it is the cha¬ 
racteristics of the noblest languages and 
nations, that they preserve most of the 
ancient heirlooms of humanity, remodelling 
and universalising it at the same time with 
productive originality.” 

The Sanscrit is exceedingly perfect, and, 
at the time of the invasion of Alexander the 
Great, was spoken by a large proportion of 
the people, certainly by all the superior 
classes. The names of places and objects, 
handed down by the Greeks, are all of San¬ 
scrit origin. It is that in which the Brah- 
minical books are written. Sir William Jones 
considered it the most finished of all the dead 
languages, more complete, copious, and re¬ 
fined than either Latin or Greek. 

The Pali is the sacred language of the 
Buddhists. The Sanscrit and Pali have been 
frequently represented as bearing a relation 
to one another, similar to that which the Greek 
and Latin now do in Europe. 

The chief languages of India derived from 
the Sanscrit are—“Bengali, Assamese, Orissan, 
andTirhutlya, spoken in the eastern provinces; 
Nepalese, Cashmiri, and Doguri, prevailing 
in the north ; Punjabi, Multani, Sindi, Kutchi, 
Guzerati, and Kunkuna, found on the western 
side; Bikanera, Marwara, Jayapura, Udaya- 
pura, Haruli, Braja Bliaka, Malavi, Bundelak- 
handi, Maghada, and Mahratta, all spoken in 
the south.” In the central provinces the 
Hinduwee is the parent of a class of dialects, 
provincial and local, such as the Menwa and 
other dialects of Rajpootana ; Mahratta is the 
vernacular in the whole of Candleish, Auran¬ 
gabad, and some remote districts into which it 
was introduced by the incursions of the Mah- 
rattas. Hindustanee is the principal of the 
Hinduwee family of dialects, and it is spoken 
throughout the whole of Northern India, and 
generally by those even who use more fre¬ 
quently some provincial or local dialect. The 
languages in Southern India, not derived 
from the Sanscrit, are, as to their origin, 
subjects of keen discussion among philologists. 
It is contended by many who have given 
much attention to the philosophy of language, 
that they are not derivable from any existing 




Chap. II.1 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


66 


language. The Tamil is the vernacular in the ' 
Carnatic; the Teloogoo prevailing coastwise 
from Madras to Orissa ; Kamata (or Canarese) 
extending from the basin of the upper Ca- 
very to the Mangera arm of the Godavery; 
Tnluva on the Canara coast; and Malayalim 
along the coast from Canara to Cape Co¬ 
morin, and is commonly called the Malabar 
tongue. 

The Prakrit, which appears to have been 
the first corruption of the Sanscrit, is a dead 
language ; there is a Prakrit literature as well 
as a Sanscrit, and it is popularly more read, 
but the Brahmins cultivate acquaintance more 
intimately with the parent language. 

The literature of India is interesting. 
Beside the sacred books in the Sanscrit and 
Prakrit, there are poems of considerable value, 
sacred and heroic epics, and hymns to the 
deities. Concerning the poetry of the Hin¬ 
doos, oriental scholars differ very much in 
their estimate : some praising them as rival¬ 
ling the works of Homer ; others describing 
them as ornate and tasteless, aboimding in 
vapid thoughts and puerile repetitions. Some 
of the specimens translated into English de¬ 
serve a higher reputation than Mr. Colebrooke 
and others are disposed to concede ; nor are 
there wanting passages of exquisite beauty, 
written with rhetorical effect and artistic 
arrangement. 

There are few translations of the choice 
works of Indian literature in the English 
language. The French, Germans, Italians, 
Russians, and even the modern Greeks, have 
translations of various productions of merit, 
originally written in the old tongue of India, 
of which there is no English translation. 
There are many scraps, and detached por¬ 
tions of these works, in various periodicals 
published in Calcutta and Bombay, but the 
government of India has done scarcely any¬ 
thing to promote in England a knowledge of 
Indian literature. The Honourable East 
India Company throws the blame of this 
neglect upon the royal government. The 
Board of Control, it is alleged, has system¬ 
atically opposed all pecuniary outlay for such 
purposes. England is indebted to the enter- 
prise of individuals for what she knows of 
Sanscrit literature, and to no one more than 
Professor Wilson. 

There are two great epic poems in the 
Sanscrit which have obtained the praise of 
oriental scholars—the Rama Yana and the 
Mahabharat. Rama was son of the King of 
Oude, and possessed of extraordinary phy¬ 
sical strength and audacious courage. His 
wife, Sita, was abducted by a sorcerer king, 
whose kingdom was the island of Ceylon. 
Rama, having formed an alliance with Hanu- 

VOL. i. 


man, chief of the monkeys, made war upon 
the sorcerer; they constructed a bridge of 
a miraculous nature across the sea from the 
peninsula to Ceylon. Over this, the allied 
Hindoos and monkeys being joined by celes¬ 
tial spirits, proceeded, and attacked the sor¬ 
cerer and his army of demons with complete 
success. Marvellous achievements were ne¬ 
cessary to this triumph, and these are narrated 
with so much power in some places, and pue¬ 
rility in others, that it might be doubted 
,whether it was not the work of various 
minds. 

The drama is better known to the English 
literary public than other portions of Hindoo 
literature. The learned librarian of the India- 
House has translated several of the best 
specimens. The chief piece, Sacoutala, was 
translated by Sir William Jones. The num¬ 
ber of the dramatic compositions known to us 
does not exceed sixty. Some of these are of 
very ancient date, and some are modern. It 
would appear that each play was performed 
but once—on occasion of some great festival— 
in the hall or court of a palace; the people, 
generally, probably from this cause, know 
nothing of this department of their literature, 
the most learned Brahmins being acquainted 
only with certain portions, which do not 
appear to have been remembered for their 
literary merit so much as from circumstaiitial 
reasons. There is no longer any taste for 
this description of literature among the 
Brahmins. 

Almost all classes of the people are familiar 
with passages from the Rama Yana, which 
they seem never tired of repeating. This has 
been adduced as a proof of its great literary 
merits, but the fact arises mainly from the 
sympathy of the native mind with the super¬ 
stitions, absurdities, and atrocities which are 
the subjects of the poem. 

There are some good pastorals, and a few 
descriptive pieces that have peculiar merits; 
but generally the specimens of poetry which 
remain, and almost all of modern composition, 
are devoid of energy, imagination, ox deli¬ 
cacy of taste. 

It is observable that while the Hindoos 
have obtained a character in Europe for gen¬ 
tleness, or had prior to the late horrible revolt 
acquired such, the passages in their poetic 
works which are’ chiefly, if not exclusively, 
marked by energy, are those which give ex¬ 
pression to revenge. It would be hardly 
possible to cull from any language more pro¬ 
found and eager utterances of vengeance than 
may be selected from the Hindoo poetry. 
In one of the dramas, Rakshasa, a Brahmin, 
is thus made to exult in the destruction of 
Nan da:— 


K 



6G 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II. 


“ ’Tis known to all the world 
I vowed the death of Nanda, and I slew him; 

The current of a vow will work its way. 

And cannot be resisted. "What is done 
Is spread abroad, and I no more have power 
To stop the tale. Why should I ? Be it known 
The fires of my wrath alone expire, 

Like the fierce conflagration of a forest, 

From lack of fuel, not of weariness. 

The flames of my just anger have consumed 
The branching ornaments of Nanda’s stem, 
Abandoned by the frightened priests and people, 

They have enveloped in a shower of ashes 
The blighted tree of his ambitious councils; 

And they have overcast with sorrow’s clouds 
The smiling heaven of those moon-like looks. 

That shed the light of love upon my foes.” 

The spirit of vengeance which fires every 
sentiment, suggests every image, and entwines 
itself in every graceful and delicate turn of 
expression, in tins elegant and poetical pas¬ 
sage, generally pervades the productions of 
Idindoo authors of any ability. 

The efforts of the government to promote 
the education of the native youth of India 
have been referred to when describing its 
religious condition. It is more than a 
hundred years since the first attempt was 
made, by voluntary Christian benevolence, for 
the education of indigent Christian children 
in India. Out of this effort arose the free 
school of Calcutta. In 1781 Mr. Hastings 
founded the Mohammedan college of Calcutta. 
In 1795 a Sanscrit college was founded at 
Benares, by an act of the imperial parliament. 
The educational efforts of the Baptist mission¬ 
aries were pursued steadily at Serampore 
during the latter part of the last century, and 
the foundation was laid for subsequent and 
more efficient efforts of the same kind. In 
1821 the Hindoo college of Calcutta was 
established. Government grants and indi¬ 
vidual benevolence contributed to make this 
an institution worthy of the object. A few 
wealthy natives took an interest in the 
undertaking, and one of some celebrity, Ram- 
mohun Roy, became its benefactor. In 1830 
the Rev. Dr. Duff, a missionary, opened a 
school or college for the instruction of the 
natives, under the auspices of the General 
Assembly of the Church of Scotland. This 
institution professed to give instruction on 
Christian principles, which was not permitted 
in the government college. The friends of 
each censured the other, but both were right 
in the courses respectively adopted. The 
government acted wisely in abstaining from 
all interference in religious matters, thereby 
not only avoiding the jealousy of the natives, 
but the mutual jealousies of different Christian 
denominations. Dr. Duff, as the representa¬ 
tive of a particular religious comnmnity, and 
his mission to India being essentially of a 


religious character, acted wisely in basing the 
education imparted upon the Gospel. The 
government at Calcutta soon after organised 
a general committee of public instruction, 
which did not work so well as was expected. 
In 1832 “the council of education” was ap¬ 
pointed, instead of the previous committee of 
instruction. The persons composing the 
council were civil officers of high rank, the 
judge of the supreme court, two natives, and 
a paid secretary; the secretary, being the 
officer of the government, really administering 
the department of education, the council 
being merely nominal. The duties imposed 
upon this officer, who was a professor in the 
Hindoo college, physician to the fever hos¬ 
pital, government book agent, inspector of 
schools, &c. &c., were so numerous, as to 
throw around his office an air of the ludicrous. 
The impression naturally left upon an impar¬ 
tial observer was, that the government never 
seriously intended a man with such a multi¬ 
tude of appointments to do anything; in fact, 
the secretary of the council appeared to be a 
sort of autocrat, from whose decisions there xvas 
no appeal. The result was what might be ex¬ 
pected, very considerable dissatisfaction among 
the professors of the college and the public 
generally. In 1835 Lord William Bentinck 
inaugurated a new educational policy—that 
of encouraging the English language, and 
education mainly, if not exclusively, through 
its medium. This has influenced the cha¬ 
racter of the instruction communicated in the 
government colleges, so as to revolutionise 
the whole system. The natives do not favour 
the plan ; they cling to their vernacular lan¬ 
guages, or are ambitious of becoming Sanscrit 
scholars, and more conversant with the litera¬ 
ture of that language. Many are, however, 
desirous of learning English, as opening a 
way to their political advancement. In 183G 
the Mohammedan college of Hadji Mohammed 
Moksin was made available for general in¬ 
struction. It is delightfully situated on a 
bank of the Ganges, thirty miles from Cal¬ 
cutta, and in the midst of a considerable 
population. The system is the same as in 
the chief colleges at Calcutta and Benares. 
About the same time the college at Dacca 
was established. Since then, at Ivishnagur, 
Agra, and Delhi, other institutions of a simi¬ 
lar nature have been founded. Schools have 
also been opened there by government, but 
in many cases too much prominence has been 
given to the English language. There are 
nearly two hundred government educational 
institutions in the Bengal presidency, and the 
north-west provinces connected with it. The 
amount of money expended upon them is not 
far short of £100,000 annually. This includes 




CflAr. II.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


67 


the medical college of Calcutta, which is the 
best managed and most successful in the 
presidency, perhaps in India. 

The educational efforts of the government 
in the Bombay presidency are considerable, as 
compared with the other presidencies and the 
proportion of population. The Elphinstone 
Institution, comprising a college and high and 
low school; the Grant Medical College ; and 
the Poonah Sanscrit College,—are all highly 
respectable, and professors of eminent reputa¬ 
tion are employed in them. The district and 
village vernacular schools are about two hun¬ 
dred and fifty in number. About £20,000 
per annum is spent for educational purposes 
in the Bombay presidency. 

Madras is less provided with means of 
superior instruction than the sister presiden¬ 
cies, so far as government i3 concerned. 
The University High School in the city 
of Madras, is the only institution where 
education in the English tongue is afforded. 
There are but few vernacular schools in 
the presidency, and scarcely £6000 a year 
is expended for educational purposes. It is, 
however, a pleasing fact, that where the 
government has done least, voluntary effort 
has done most. If in Madras only a few 
thousand pupils receive instruction under 
the patronage of the state, the voluntary reli¬ 
gious and educational societies have estab¬ 
lished one thousand schools, and are educating 
one hundred thousand children. Bombay 
has rather less than one hundred voluntary 
schools, in which there are about six thousand 
five hundred scholars, not quite half the num¬ 
ber to which the government affords instruc¬ 
tion in that presidency. Bengal has not 
many more voluntary schools than Bombay, 
but they are better attended, the proportion 
being about three to one. Besides these 
general schools, there are boarding schools 
for the orphans of native Christians, especially 
recent converts, who endure much persecution 
if of the higher castes. 

The education in all these schools is con¬ 
fined to boys. The nature of the institutions, 
and the habits of the people, confine the 
attendance upon them to male children and 
youths. The prejudice against female educa¬ 
tion is very strong in the native mind. 
Woman is held in contempt throughout India, 
as in all other heathen countries. In this con¬ 
temptuous feeling woman herself is acqui¬ 
escent. The voluntary societies have insti¬ 
tuted nearly four hundred schools throughout 
India for female children, exclusive of about 
one hundred boarding schools. The females 
in the orphan schools have been generally 
either the daughters of converts, or children 
saved from famine, or from the destruction to 


which female infants are subjected in various 
parts of India. These humane exertions for 
the female population have been chiefly made 
in Southern India, within the presidency of 
Madras. Few efforts have as yet been made 
to impart religious or other intelligence to 
the adult female population: the difficulties 
in the way, arising from oriental jealousy and. 
prejudice, are great, yet not altogether insur¬ 
mountable. 

The system of education adopted in the 
government schools is obsolete, and the pro¬ 
gress made by the scholars not very encourag¬ 
ing. Many of the teachers are natives, and 
few appear to take to their work heartily. 
The same may be said of the native profes¬ 
sors in the higher schools. Impartial ob¬ 
servers have described them as listless, and 
exercising but small beneficial influence. 

Since the introduction of the government 
colleges and high schools, many of the natives 
educated in them have become infidels. It 
would not be very difficult to make a Jain a 
deist, or a Buddhist an atheist; the Brahmin 
is not so ready a convert to any form of infi¬ 
delity. The education of the more respect¬ 
able natives in European knowledge has 
hitherto not improved them much in any 
way, except the acquisition of English, 
French, and a smattering of science. Their 
vanity and assumption of learning would be 
incredible, if not so well attested. The 
merest nonsense is published, by “ Young 
Bengal” especially, as if the creations of un¬ 
rivalled genius. In a much less degree a 
similar effect is observed upon the pupils of 
the schools, not one in twenty of whom make 
any acquisitions of a solid kind. In the volun¬ 
tary schools there is this advantage, that the 
elements of the Christian religion are com¬ 
municated, however little may be received of 
whatever else is taught. 

It is a remarkable fact, that few native 
youths educated in the government colleges 
remain loyal to the government. As all lite¬ 
rature of a religious complexion is necessarily 
prohibited by the authorities, the young men 
find no access to such; but infidel books of 
the worst character are obtained, as the libra¬ 
ries are not regulated with sufficient strin¬ 
gency in this respect. “Young India,” as 
they leave their Alma Mater,—great English 
and French scholars in their own esteem,—are 
generally concealed infidels and open rebels. 
At the various associations of which they are 
members, subjects of discussion are constantly 
selected for the purpose of displaying the 
indignation which they profess to feel that 
foreigners should govern their country. The 
speeches made on these occasions betray the 
most inflated self-conceit, gross ignorance of 



6S 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. II. 


moral and political philosophy, and a spirit 
and principle thoroughly adverse to British 
rule. The following graphic sketch by an eye¬ 
witness will enlighten our readers as to some of 
the causes 'which operate in rendering of little 
value the school and college system of India:— 
“ On any ordinary day the visitor will see, 
on a table in the midst of a small room, one 
of the ‘professors’ sitting in oriental fashion, 
after the manner of tailors ; his head is bare, 
his shoulders are bare ; the day is hot, and 
the roll of muslin which envelops his body 
out of doors has been removed; the ample 
rotundity of the stomach heaves regularly 
above the muslin folds which encircle the 
loins and* thighs. The shaven crown of the 
worthy ‘professor,’ and his broad quivering 
back, glow with the heat; -whilst a disciple, 
standing behind him, plies the fan vigorously 
to and fro, and produces a current of wind 
that keeps the huge mass partially cool. 
Around the table are squatted numbers of 
dirty-looking youths, carefully enveloped in 
their muslin dresses, as prescribed by the 
rules, and droning, one by one, over a manu¬ 
script page, which is handed from one to 
another in succession. The majority are 
dozing, and well they may, for it is sleepy 
work—the same verses nasally intoned by 
one after another with unvarying monotony, 
and doubtless with similar errors. The ‘pro¬ 
fessor ’ seldom speaks, for he too is dozing 
heavily on the table, anxiously awaiting the 
bell that is to release him to liberty and 
dinner. The same scene is being repeated 
in other similar rooms, where other ‘profes¬ 
sors’ are similarly dozing and teaching, and 
other youths similarly shut up from the light 
of God’s sun, which shines without; and of 
his spirit, which should shine within them.” 

The newspapers and other periodicals 
printed in the native languages are con¬ 
ducted in a manner in perfect keeping with 
the state of “ Young India,” as above de¬ 
scribed. Furious and bitter attacks upon 
the government are circulated through such 
media all over the land. These seldom 
possess satire, for which the native mind does 
not seem to have relish or capacity; in¬ 
deed, so little are the people generally capa¬ 
ble of comprehending it, that the keenest 
satire upon their own gods and super¬ 
stitions are listened to with imperturbable 
gravity, and treated as if serious argumenta¬ 
tions. The false statements, appeals to the 
pride of race, and to the superstitious feeling 
of the people,—with which the infidel writers 
themselves had no sympathy,—which have 
appeared in the vernacular press, did much 
to sow suspicion in the. minds of the soldiery, 
and to inflame the passions and ambition of 


the native princes, preparing both for the 
revolt which has recently poured such a tor¬ 
rent of disorder and havoc over the country. 
Whatever administrative alterations may be 
effected in India resulting from that event, a 
radical change in the system of education 
ought to be among the most prominent. 

Happily, there is a new native literature 
now springing up, which, although it may 
not as yet have had time to work much good, 
is, like leaven, silently and gradually oper¬ 
ating in the mass. The Religious Tract 
Society has issued various works, prepared 
by persons well acquainted with the people, 
and these, distributed in most of the lan¬ 
guages spoken in the country, are beginning 
to be objects of curiosity. The Roman 
character is now adopted in printing these 
works, and persons of great authority in such 
matters maintain that much facility to the 
extension of knowledge will result from the 
plan. The experiment has, however, yet to 
be tried; the benefit expected is doubtful. 

The British and Foreign Bible Society, like 
the Tract Society, is diffusing knowledge 
through the medium of the vernacular lan¬ 
guages, making the sacred Scriptures a stan¬ 
dard book in every tongue. Dr. Yates’ 
version of the Bengalee Bible, with Mr. 
Wenger’s revisions, and a carefully revised 
Hindui version, are now being actively circu¬ 
lated in Bengal. Last May the printing of 
20,000 copies of the Gospel, in the Hindui - 
Kaithi, was commenced under the superin¬ 
tendence of the Rev. A. Sternberg of Mozuffer- 
pore. The Hindui-Nagri Old Testament has 
been completed and issued at Allahabad, by 
the Rev. J. Owen, of the American Presby¬ 
terian Mission, under the auspices of the 
Agra Bible Society. The Old Testament, in 
Pwo-Karem, is in progress. It is being con¬ 
ducted by the American missionaries in 
Pegu; a grant of £500 to the object has 
been voted by the London Society. What¬ 
ever be the character of the education given 
in the existing schools, the people are being 
taught to read, and can therefore use the 
books circulated. In view of this fact the 
North India Bible Society issued, a few 
months ago, the following remarkable and 
spirited address :—“ Education is making con¬ 
siderable advance. The people are be¬ 
coming better able to read our books, and 
we hope more interested in searching into 
our religion. The country is also rapidly 
filling up with missionaries, who are the main 
instruments in spreading our books among 
the people. The past year has given us 
considerable accessions, and we have now 
within what may be called the bounds of our 
society, about 100 missionaries of various 



IN INDIA AND TIIE EAST. 


69 


Chap. II.] 

denominations, most of whom will look to 
this society for their supplies. It is also 
gratifying to he able to state, that there are 
scattered over the country an apparently in¬ 
creasing number of laymen, who are desirous 
of distributing the Bible, and who are fre¬ 
quently making demands upon our stock. The 
field of our operations also, though already of 
vast extent, is continually widening. During 
the past year, Oude has given to us three 
millions of immortal souls, and the course of 
events shows that it cannot belong before the 
gates of Affghanistan will be thrown open 
for the entrance of the Gospel.” 

The district in which this society operates 
is immense, reaching from the undefined limit 
in the east, where the Bengalee language meets 
the Hindoo, stretching thence across the centre 
of India to the Marathai speaking tribes, and 
thence including Rajpootana to the northern 
bounds of India, comprising a population of 
not less than sixty millions. 

Mr. Hoerule has just finished the revision 
of the Urdu New Testament, in the Arabic 
character. An edition of the New Testa¬ 
ment in the same language, in the Roman 
character, published in 1845, has been re¬ 
vised by Messrs. Mather, Smith, and Leu- 
polt, the original translators. The Bombay 
auxiliary Bible Society has just issued a com¬ 
plete edition (5000 copies) of the Scriptures 
in the Marathai. Of the Gujurati New Tes¬ 
tament they have lately issued 6000 copies, 
and since then 5000 copies of the whole Bible 
in that dialect. 

A gratifying exemplification of the way in 
which the progress of education, and the cir¬ 
culation of hooks of a useful character, act 
upon one another, has occurred in connection 
with the labours of the friends of education 
and Bible distribution in Ceylon. During 
the years 1856-7, the issues of the Singhalese 
and Indo-Portuguese Scriptures amounted to 
3342. A person writing from Colombo, 
says :—“ Much attention is paid to the native 
educational establishments, and it is the wish 
of the committee that all the schools should 
be furnished with the entire New Testament. 
The Central School commission has purchased 
500 copies of the Gospel of St. Luke and the 
Acts of the Apostles, recently printed for the 
use of the government vernacular schools.” 
In Ceylon it is not so necessary for the go- 
vei’nment to avoid the charge of interfering 
with the religion of the people. The pre¬ 
vailing superstition being that of Buddha, 
there does not exist the same popular jealousy 
of government propagandism. The labours 
of these voluntary associationsin Ceylon have 
so impressed the present governor, that he 
has become the patron of the auxiliary Bible 


Society. Sir George Grey has ordered the 
remission of duty on paper, and other mate¬ 
rial sent out for the auxiliaries’ use. The 
local committee, encouraged by these tokens 
of appreciation and support, recently passed 
a resolution to present as a gift from the 
society a Bible, in the vernacular, to every 
newly-marriedcouple among the native Chris¬ 
tians. 

The countries around India proper are 
receiving similar benefits from the operation 
of educational and book societies. An edi¬ 
tion of 5000 copies of the Gospel according 
to St. Luke has been completed in Punjabec, 
and an edition equally large of the Gospel 
of Matthew is issuing in the same dialect. 

The Persian language being undei’stood 
by many in the north-west provinces as well 
as in Persia, the Bible in that language is dis¬ 
tributed in those countries as opportunity 
allows. The Gospel of Matthew has been 
translated into Thibetian. Types have been 
prepared at Secundra, and the interesting 
country of Thibet will he penetrated by ad¬ 
venturous men, desirous to circulate the word 
of God in its remote regions. The Rev. Mr. 
Clarke, of Peshawur, has translated into 
Pushtoo the Gospel of St. John, and the 
society has ordered two thousand copies in 
lithograph. A committee of gentlemen ac¬ 
quainted with the language has been formed 
at Peshawur, for the purpose of preparing 
translations of other portions of the Bible. 

Both the Bible and Tract Societies have 
extended their operations to Assam, Tenes- 
serim, and Pegu, where, from various circum¬ 
stances, the people are likely to welcome 
books. In the Tenesserim provinces the 
poonjies (a poonjie is a sort of priest and 
schoolmaster) teach the people reading, writ¬ 
ing, and arithmetic for the payment of a little 
labour in the rice-field. Nearly every village 
has its kioung, or school. The government 
has established schools of a superior cha¬ 
racter, and the missionaries, especially the 
American, have supplemented them, and 
teach the Christian Scriptures. The Ame¬ 
rican Baptists have opened eight boarding 
and day-schools at Moulmein, with an ave¬ 
rage attendance of five hundred scholars. In 
the other provinces eighteen similar schools 
have been established, and a very consider¬ 
able number of rudimental schools taught by 
natives. Throughout the interesting terri¬ 
tory of Pegu the Baptist American Mission 
is labouring, not only to preach the Gospel 
to the people, hut to elevate them by educa¬ 
tion. Native preachers and teachers are em¬ 
ployed with success, and a new vernacular 
literature is being rapidly supplied. 

The British press in India is acquiring rapidly 




TO 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap, III. 


increasing influence. If the measure of Lord 
Canning, in restricting the liberty of the press 
during the late revolt, were a necessary policy, 
it proves that the English language must 
have made great progress among the natives. 
Not many years ago it would have been of no 
consequence whatever to the government 
what the English press in India published, 
so far as any influence it might exercise upon 
the natives might be taken into consideration. 
If, however, as many allege, the real object was 
to stifle discussion as to the acts of the go¬ 
vernment, it proves that the English press is 
no longer the subservient tool of any Indian 
administration, as it was wont to be con¬ 
sidered, but that its independence and power 
are felt at government house. It is likely 
that both the motives glanced at operated 
with the governor-general and council; it is 
no longer a matter of indifference to them 
either as regards the public opinion of Eu¬ 
ropeans in India, or that of the natives, 
what the Anglo-Indian press contains in its 
columns. 

There are now many papers in India of large 
circulation, guided by great talent, and main¬ 
taining high principles; such as the Calcutta 
Englishman, Friend of India, Indian Char¬ 
ter, Bombay Times, Bombay Gazette, Madras 
Spectator, the Mofussilite of Meerut, &c. 
The following estimate of the press of India 
by a gentleman who had himself been editor 
of the Ceylon Examiner, is, it may be hoped, 
to be received with favourable qualifications, 
as the language employed is severe :—“ If 
the press of India cannot be said to rank 
either in talent or tone with that of the 
parent country, it must be confessed by im¬ 
partial witnesses that it is as good as it can 
afford to be; and looking at all the circum¬ 
stances of the case, as good and as moral as 
could be expected. If it is not quite so intel¬ 
lectual, nor nearly so high-minded, nor yet 
so independent, as journalism in England, let 
the Anglo-Indian public ask who they have 
to thank but themselves. The Indian press 


is as worthy a reflex of the state of society in 
that part of the world, as is the condition of 
English society mirrored in the journals of 
this country. The Times or Daily News, 
published in the presidencies, would be aa 
much out of place as would the Quarterly 
among the Esquimaux. Papers are not 
usually established for any higher motive 
than profit; and in such a question of pounds, 
j shillings, and pence, no man having any 
I knowledge of India w r ould attempt to print 
j such a paper as the London Examiner or 
1 Spectator, even had he the ability at his 
command to enable him to do so. Editors 
in India know their readers pretty well; 
they generally understand the sort of writing 
which is acceptable to them, and minister 
accordingly. One of the most successful 
journals throughout India is the Mofussilite, 
a bi-weekly journal, published at Meerut, in 
Bengal. It was established some dozen years 
since, and, by a judicious catering to the 
reading wants of the community, it has 
reached the highest position amongst Indian 
papers, both as regards circulation and in¬ 
come. Few topics escape its notice, yet 
these are all handled in such a light and 
pleasant manner, that even the most uninter¬ 
esting matters rivet the attention of the 
Anglo-Indian, whilst in England its columns 
would possibly be voted ‘ frivolous.’ ” 

In this chapter considerable space has been 
occupied with the religion, languages, and 
literature of India; no subject connected 
with its vast population could deserve more 
attention. The state of religion and educa- 
I tion in any country forms the bases for legis¬ 
lation and government. Even commerce 
must keep in view the principles, conscience, 
and intelligence of a people whose shores are 
sought in the friendly and profitable ex¬ 
changes of trade ; certainly, at the present 
juncture, no theme connected with India 
could more earnestly require the attention of 
the British people than that which has occu- 
i pied this chapter. 


CHAPTER III. 

PROVINCES—CHIEF CITIES. 


Before describing the state of the arts, the 
antiquities and customs, the commerce and 
government of the country, it is proper that 
some notice should be taken of its different 
tracts, and of its chief cities. In the general 
view given of India in the first chapter a de¬ 
scription of its leading natural divisions, as 


separated by mountain or river, was neces¬ 
sary, and this was conducted to a sufficient 
extent to render a very particular account of 
the provinces and districts undesirable. 

Bengal is the chief presidency. It is 
divided into three provinces—the lower, 
central, and upper, or western. The climate 






Chap. III.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


71 


and natural productions vary with the lati¬ 
tude, soil, and local peculiarities. The whole 
presidency lies between longitude 74° and 
96° east, and latitude 16° and 31°north. The 
three provinces comprise as the chief divisions 
and districts Calcutta, Patna, Moorsliedabad, 
Dacca, Benares, Bareilly, Assam, &c. 

The general appearance of the lower pro¬ 
vince is flat and uniform. Sameness and 
richness characterise the face of the country. 
There are elevated tracts, but they are only 
exceptions to the general level aspect. The 
inundations which take place in the districts 
watered by the Ganges show the general 
descent. Hamilton derives the name Bengal 
from the fact that the tract of annual inunda¬ 
tion was anciently called Beng, and the 
upper parts, which were not liable to inunda¬ 
tion, was called Barendra. The presidency, 
from its western boundary to the sea, is 
watered by the Ganges, and is intersected in 
every direction by navigable rivers, the 
courses of which frequently change, in con¬ 
sequence of the loose nature of the soil—- 
for if any new obstacle or large accumulation 
of deposit create an obstruction, the river 
easily forces for itself a new T channel. This 
has been a cause of difficulty to geographical 
and topographical explorers, especially as the 
natives continue to give to the neglected 
channel the old name, and as long as any 
water remains they perform their religions 
ablutions in what they deem the sacred flood. 
These changes are attended by loss, the 
neighbourhood of the new courses being fre¬ 
quently flooded to a great extent from the 
shallowness of the bed through which the 
current rolls ; and the old courses becoming 
marshes, spread disease, as well as leave the 
country around without irrigation. 

The banks of the rivers, especially of the 
Ganges, notwithstanding the flatness of the 
country, exhibit considerable variety of ap¬ 
pearance. Sometimes the current, sapping 
away the soft earth, the banks appear preci¬ 
pitous ; but it is dangerous to approach them, 
as they frequently give way. At other 
parts the river washes into the land, form¬ 
ing deep bays, and giving a picturesque 
aspect to the neighbourhood. The lesser 
rivers of Bengal have a more winding course 
than the larger, and where the banks are 
narrowest, the current is more winding, lying 
along the level country like a beautiful ser¬ 
pent basking in the Indian sun. By this 
more devious flow a large extent of country 
is irrigated. The Ganges appears to have 
the least circuitous course of any of the rivers, 
yet, within one hundred miles it increases by 
its windings the distance one-fourth. That 
part of the river which lies in a line from 


Gangautic, where it flows in a small stream 
from the Himalayas, to Saugor Island, below 
Calcutta, is particularly sacred. The Hoogly 
river is, therefore, in the native esteem, the 
true Ganges; and the great branch which 
runs eastward to join the Brahmapootra, is 
by them called Puddah (Padma), or Padma- 
watti, and is not worshipped, although it is, 
in Hindoo imagination, invested with some 
sacredness. Wherever the Ganges runs from 
the south to the north, contrary to its or¬ 
dinary direction, it is considered more holy 
than generally in other parts of its current, 
and is called Uttarbahini. But the most sa¬ 
cred spots to the worshippers of the “ Ganga,” 
are those where other rivers form a junction 
with it; thus, Allahabad, where the Ganges 
and Jumna unite, has a pre-eminent sanctity, 
and is called, by way of distinction, Prayag. 
At Hurdwar, where the river escapes from 
the mountains, and at Saugor Island, at the 
mouth of the Hoogly, it is also the object of 
especial adoration. In the Hindoo mytho¬ 
logy the Ganges is described as the daughter 
of the great mountain Himavata; she is called 
Ganga on account of her flowing through 
Gang , the earth. She receives various other 
designations, some of which are nearly as 
popular, and all of mythical derivation. The 
Brahmapootra contributes to the irrigation 
of Bengal; it derives its name also from 
a myth, as it signifies the son of Brahma; 
but some Hindoo mythologists trace its deri¬ 
vation in a different manner, which illustrates 
the impurity of the Hindoo imagination under 
the influence of idolatry. 

The great river surface in Bengal, and the 
low-lying, marshy coast, cause fogs and pene¬ 
trating dews in the cold weather, which are 
unfavourable to health. Some persons, how¬ 
ever, maintain that they are rather conducive 
to salubrity, being not more than sufficient 
to supply moisture equivalent to the daily 
exhaustion by the sun. 

The staple productions of Bengal are 
sugar, tobacco, silk, cotton, indigo, and rice. 
The different species of the last-named are 
almost beyond enumeration, so varied are 
the influence of soil, season, and mode of 
cultivation. The poppy is also produced in 
the upper portions of the presidency. Ben¬ 
gal is not considered so favourable to orchard 
produce as other portions of India, yet the 
natives are fond of this cultivation, and regard 
with reverence trees planted by their fathers. 
Orchards of mango-trees diversify the aspect 
of the country everywhere throughout the 
presidency. In Bahar the palm and the 
date are abundant. The cocoa-nut, so useful 
and refreshing to the Bengalees, grows in 
the southern portions of the territory. In 




HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[CfIAI>. III. 


the central districts plantations of areca are 
common. The northern parts nurture the 
bassia, which is very useful; its inflated corols 
are nutritious, and yield an excellent spirit 
on distillation; the oil expressed from its 
seeds is used as a substitute for butter. 
Clumps of bamboos, which are useful for 
building and profitable for sale, are noticeable 
by the traveller in many directions. In a 
single year the bamboo grows to its height; 
in the second year its wood acquires the 
requisite hardness. “It is probable,” ob¬ 
serves an old writer, “that a single acre of 
bamboos is more profitable than ten of any 
other tree.” 

English vegetables do not grow in Bengal 
so luxuriantly as in England, and are noticed 
by English persons on their arrival for their 
insipidity. The potato, at least some species 
of it, thrives better than most other foreign 
vegetables. 

Cattle are a considerable portion of the 
peasant’s wealth. The buffalo, which is grazed 
at a very small expense, is a valuable animal, 
on account of its milk. As the flesh of kine is 
not available for food, in consequence of the 
religious prejudice against it, cattle are not so 
valuable as otherwise would be the case. 
Coarse blankets are .made from the wool of 
the sheep, which is not valued in the market 
as an article of commerce. The Bengalee 
sheep are small, four horned, and of a dark 
grey colour; their flesh is much prized by 
Europeans. 

In the woods apes and monkeys abound, 
and in the evening the jackalls, leaving their 
jungles, howl around the cities and villages. 
The monkey tribes enter the villages unmo¬ 
lested, bear away fruit, and do much mischief. 

The population of Bengal has been already 
given on another page. The most recent 
computation to which the author has access, 
fixes it at seventy millions : this includes the 
population of the north-west provinces. Ever 
since the settlement of the English, the people 
have increased in numbers at a ratio before 
unknown. It met with some severe checks 
during that time. In 1770, it is alleged that 
one-fifth of the population perished by famine. 
In 1784, one in fifty persons fell a victim to 
a similar calamity. In 1787, an extraordi¬ 
nary inundation carried away a vast amount 
of property, and destroyed many lives in 
Eastern Bengal. In the following year, and 
consequent upon the disaster last named, 
there was a famine in the districts where it 
had prevailed. For nearly fifty years after 
that period, famine, or even scarcity, was 
unknown. Since then the rice harvest has 
been several times beneath its average, and 
there has been consequent suffering; but it 


does not appear that any important check 
has been put by those seasons of distress to 
the increase of population. 

The following computations of the popula¬ 
tion at different periods, made by competent 
authorities, will indicate the rate of progress, 
partly by natural increase, and partly by the 
annexation of new territory. 

In 1772, the British provinces of Bengal, 
then consisting of Bengal and Bahar, were 
stated to contain twenty millions of inhabit- 
ants.* In 1789, they were believed to con¬ 
tain twenty-four millions.f In 1793, includ¬ 
ing Benares, the people of the Bengal pro¬ 
vinces were supposed to number twenty-seven 
millions.:}: In 1814, the result of several 
investigations by government, reports were 
published, which stated that the population 
amounted to thirty-nine millions. § In 1820, 
more than forty millions were said to consti¬ 
tute the population.|| 

During the last thirty-five years, the ratio 
of natural increase has been greater than 
during any period of the English occupancy, 
and the annexation of territories has added 
many millions more ; and now the population 
of Bengal exceeds that of the whole Russian 
empire, the Turkish empire, or the German 
federation. 

There are many large and populous cities 
within this presidency, and a great number of 
small ones. The large villages are almost 
incredibly numerous, forming as it were 
chains of towns along the banks of the 
rivers, especially of the Ganges, as numerous 
and populous as are said to be observed along 
the banks of rivers in China. A writer, who 
knew Bengal nearly half a century since, 
thus describe^. them :—“ While passing them 
by the inland navigation, it is pleasing to 
view the cheerful bustle and crowded popula¬ 
tion by land and water; men, old women, 
birds, and beasts, all mixed and intimate, 
evincing a sense of security, and appearance 
of happiness, seen in no part of India beyond 
the company’s territories.” This picture, so 
well drawn for a remoter period, answers to 
what existed previous to the late military 
revolt, which entailed most disaster in those 
very districts. 

It will promote the clearness of the narra¬ 
tive, and facilitate the memory of the reader, 
to notice the chief cities of old Bengal, before 
describing those which belong to provinces 
which, of late years, have been added to the 
presidency. 

The chief city of India, the seat of the 
supreme government as well as of the presi- 

* Lord Clive, f Sir W. Jones. | Mr. Colebrooke. 

§ Dr. Francis Buchanan; Mr. Bayley. 

,| Walter Hamilton. 





Chap. III.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


73 


clential government of Bengal, is Calcutta, 
one of the largest and most picturesque cities 
in the world, deserving the epithet applied 
to it in Europe and America—“ the City of 
Palaces.” 

The rise and progress of the city of Cal- 
cutta have been very rapid. Previous to the 
English settlement it could scarcely he said 
to exist, except as a village.* In 1717 it 
was a village belonging to the Nuddea dis¬ 
trict ; the houses were in small clusters, scat¬ 
tered over a moderate extent of ground, and 
the inhabitants were the tillers of the sur¬ 
rounding country, and a few native traders 
or merchants. In the south of the Cheind- 
saul Ghaut a forest existed.- Between it and 
Kidderpore there were two tolerably populous 
villages; their inhabitants were invited by 
the merchants at Calcutta to settle there. 
These merchants appear to have consisted 
chiefly of one family, named Seats, and to 
their enterprise the city is indebted for its 
first step to opulence. Where the forest and 
the two villages stood, Fort William, the 
British citadel, and the esplanade, now stand. 
Where now the most elegant houses of the 
English part of the suburbs are seen, there 
were then small villages of wretched houses, 
surrounded by pools of water. The ground 
between the straggling clusters of hovels was 
covered with jungle. A quarter of a century 
later it appears to have made fair progress; 
there were seventy English houses, the huts 
of the natives had increased, and several rich 
native merchants had good residences, j* The 
town was then surrounded by a ditch, to pro¬ 
tect it from the incursions of the Mahrattas. 
About a century ago, the ground on which 
the citadel now stands, and on which some of 
the best portions of the town are built, was 
dense jungle. The town was then divided 
into four districts—Dee Calcutta, Govindpore, 
Chutanutty, and Bazaar Calcutta, and con¬ 
tained 9451 houses, under the protection of 
the company, and 52G7 houses, with portions 
of land, possessed by independent proprietors. 
On the land occupied by those houses there 
were smaller tenements, sub-let by the pro¬ 
prietors, which would extend the list of 
habitations to nearly fifty thousand. Writers, 
whose accounts were given soon after, esti¬ 
mate the number of inhabitants at four hun¬ 
dred thousand, j; which appears to be in con¬ 
siderable excess of the fact, notwithstanding 
the great increase of population. Towards 
the close of the last century the power and 
population of the town were of much greater 
magnitude. According to government re¬ 
ports, the houses, shops, and other habita- 

* Hamilton. f Orme. 

Z Hoi well. 

VOL. I.' 


tions, not the property of the East India 
Company, were in number as follow:— 

British subjects. 4,300 

Armenians, Greeks, and Christians of other 

sects and nations.. . 3,290 

Mohammedans.14,700 

Hindoos. 56,460 

Chinese. 10 

Total. 78,760 

From the beginning of the present century 
the population and resources of the town have 
augmented. In 1802 the reports made to 
government represented the population as six 
hundred thousand, and the neighbouring- 
country as so thickly populated, that a circle 
of twenty miles from government house 
would comprise two and a quarter millions 
of persons. Half a century since the exten¬ 
sion of the superior parts of the city, and its 
increase in wealth, were remarkable. Calcutta 
had become the great capital of a great em¬ 
pire. Mr. Hamilton describes its condition at 
that time in the following general terms:— 
“ The modern town of Calcutta extends along 
the east side of the river above six miles, but 
the breadth varies very much at different 
places. The esplanade, between the town 
and Fort William, leaves a grand opening, 
along the edge of which is placed the new 
government house, erected by the Marquis 
Wellesley, and continued on in a line with 
that edifice is a range of magnificent houses, 
ornamented with spacious verandahs. Chou- 
ringhee, formerly a collection of native huts, 
is now a district of palaces, extending for a 
considerable distance into the country. The 
architecture of the houses is Grecian, which 
does not appear the best adapted for the 
country or climate, as the pillars of the 
verandahs are too much elevated to keep 
out the sun during the morning and evening, 
yet at both these times, especially the latter, 
the heat is excessive within doors. In the 
rainy season this style of architecture causes 
other inconveniences. Perhaps a more con¬ 
fined style of building, Hindoo in its cha¬ 
racter, would be found of more practical com¬ 
fort. The black town extends along the river 
to the north, and exhibits a remarkable con¬ 
trast to the part inhabited by the Europeans. 
Persons who have only seen the latter have 
little conception of the remainder of the city ; 
but those who have been there will bear wit¬ 
ness to the wretched condition of at least six 
in eight parts of this externally magnificent 
city. The streets here are narrow, dirty, and 
rmpaved; the houses of two stories are of 
brick, with flat terraced roofs, but the great 
majority are mud cottages, covered with 
small tiles, with side Avails of mats, bamboos. 

L 











HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. III. 


74 

and other combustible materials, the whole, 
within and without, swarming with popula¬ 
tion. Fires, as may he inferred from the 
construction, are of frequent occurrence, but 
do not in the least affect the European 
quarter, which, from the mode of building, 
is completely incombustible. In this divi¬ 
sion the houses stand detached from each 
other in spaces inclosed by walls, the general 
approach being by a flight of steps under a 
large verandah; their whole appearance is 
uncommonly elegant and respectable.” 

The increase in the wealth and power of 
the great Indian capital advanced with the 
century. In 1810 the population was com¬ 
puted at a million by the chief judge,* but 
he professed to include the environs in this 
enumeration, and as he did not make a very 
distinct report as to the principle upon which 
he added the population of various surround¬ 
ing villages, the report must be held as a 
very loose return. About the same period 
General Kyd calculated the inhabitants of 
the city as not more than five hundred thou¬ 
sand, but admitted that the population of 
the suburbs was very numerous. 

The present aspect of the city is magnifi¬ 
cent ; it's population, wealth, the number and 
magnitude of its public buildings, the shipping 
in the river, the increase of commerce, the 
grandeur and luxury of rich natives, of Euro¬ 
peans, and of the government, throw an air 
of splendour over the place which fascinates 
all who come within its influence. The 
modern town of Calcutta is situated on the 
east side of the Hoogly, and extends along it 
about six miles. The approach by the river 
from the sea is exceedingly interesting, the 
Hoogly being one of the most picturesque of 
Indian rivers, and its most beautiful spots 
are in the vicinity of the great city, both on 
the side upon which the city is built, and on 
the opposite bank. The course of the river 
is somewhat devious, a distance of sixty miles 
by land being by the river’s course • nearly 
eighty. As upon the Ganges proper, the 
water in many places washes into the land, 
forming deep bays, and sometimes bold jut¬ 
ting promontories, which, clothed with oriental 
foliage to their summits, arrest the traveller’s 
attention. The beauty of the trees which 
flourish in Bengal is seen to singular advan¬ 
tage along the Hoogly. The bamboo, with 
its long and graceful branches; the palm, of 
many species, towering aloft in its dignity; 
the peepvd, finding space for its roots in the 
smallest crevices of rocks, or in the partially 
decayed walls of buildings, displays on high 
its light green foliage; the babool, with its 
golden balls and soft rich perfume ; the beau- 
* Sir Henry Russell. 


tiful magnolia, and various species of the 
acacia;—all find their suitable places, cast 
their shadows upon the sparkling river, and 
wave, as it were, their welcome to the adven¬ 
turous voyager who has sought their native 
groves from far-off lands. If the traveller 
disembarks anywhere, and passes into the 
surrounding country, he will find it clothed 
in eternal verdure; for even while the sun of 
India pours its vertical rays upon the plains 
of Bengal, so well watered is it, that the 
verdure still retains its freshness. All persons 
passing on the river are much struck with 
the pleasant ghauts, or landing-places. These 
consist of many steps, especially where the 
banks are precipitous, and there is architec¬ 
tural taste displayed in their construction. 
The steps are wide, with fine balustrades. It 
is found convenient to build temples or 
pagodas near them, because the natives can 
glide along in their boats from considerable 
distances without much fatigue or trouble, 
when the sun pours his fierce and burning 
radiance on river, wood, and plain. The 
small Hindoo temples, called rnhuts, are very 
commonly erected near these ghauts, in groups 
which are picturesque rather from the skilful 
grouping than from their individual form, 
which is beehive. The Mohammedans, as 
well as the heathen, have erected their temples 
by the ghauts of the Hoogly. Their beauti¬ 
ful domes and minarets may be seen glisten¬ 
ing in the vivid Indian light through the 
feathery foliage of the palm and bamboo. 
Both Mohammedans and heathens take great 
pains to make the neighbourhood of these 
temple-crowned ghauts picturesque. The 
stairs to the water’s edge are strewn with 
flowers of the richest perfumes and the 
brightest hues ; the balustrades bear entwined 
garlands of the double-flowered Indian jessa¬ 
mine, and other graceful creeping plants which 
serve as pendants; and, floating along the 
shining river, these fair offerings to false 
gods, or wreaths in honour of the prophet of 
Islam, spread their odours, and adorn the 
current. Thus the banks of the Hoogly seem 
fairy land, and its stream fairy waters; the 
most glowing light, the sweetest perfumes, the 
most graceful forms of architecture and of 
the forest, the richest profusion of colour 
reflected from foliage, flowers, and blossoms 
of infinite variety, the river itself at intervals 
so covered with these last-named offspring of 
beauty, that one might suppose they drew 
their life from its bosom. Such is the scene 
by day, and as night approaches there is still 
beauty inexpressible, however changed its 
aspects. The setting sun throws upon the 
foliage and river the richest tints; the first 
shadows of night fall upon innumerable circles 





IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


75 


Chap. III.] 

of fireflies, which, with their golden and 
emerald light, play amid the trees, and flash 
along the margin of the waters; and the in¬ 
numerable lamps, gleaming from temples, 
pagodas, and mosques through the thick trees 
and brushwood, give an air of enchantment 
to the night scenes of the Hoogly. Happy is 
he whose leisure admits of his working up or 
gliding down the Hoogly in the slow-sailing 
budgerow, for in few lands can scenery so 
soft, soothing, and calmly beautiful be found. 

When the European visitor approaches 
Calcutta, it is not discerned for any consider¬ 
able distance ; hidden by the thickly cluster¬ 
ing trees, the course of the river, and the 
level site, it is not seen from the river until it 
suddenly bursts upon the view in all its 
splendour. The coup d’ceil is most impres¬ 
sive, and the excitement of the stranger is 
increased every moment as one object of in¬ 
terest and grandeur after another comes 
rapidly in more distinctness before him. The 
pleasant gardens which descend to the river 
from the mansions of the merchants and supe¬ 
rior officials cannot fail to arrest attention, 
even in view of the noble public edifices. 
Much attention is paid to these gardens, 
which are decorated by the magnificent trees 
and flowers of India, and enriched by its 
exquisite fruits. The gardens are nearly 
all on the left bank of the river, for the 
right is occupied by the botanical gardens 
of the Honourable East India Company, 
which are perhaps the most interesting of 
their kind in the world. In these gardens 
exotics from the Cape of Good Hope, the 
Mauritius, China, Australia, the United States 
of America, and Europe, are carefully culti¬ 
vated. There the palm, the bamboo, the 
peep ul, and the banyan are to be seen of the 
loftiest height, and in all the spreading pomp 
of the Indian forest tree. There are some 
larger banyan trees in other parts of the 
peninsula, but one remarkable specimen may 
be seen in these gardens, several acres being 
covered by the overbranching shadow of this 
king of the oriental forest. 

The ghauts at Calcutta are as elegant as 
they are convenient, and impress the stranger 
as he passes them, and when he lands, with 
the idea not only of the grandeur of the city, 
but of its good government. 

The grand arsenal of Fort William is dis¬ 
tant from the city about a quarter of a mile. 
This noble structure deserves special notice ; 
it has an historic interest as well as a political 
importance. It has been generally regarded 
as stronger, and, as a fortress, more regular 
than any other in India. It is octagonal, five 
of the faces being regular; the other three 
next the river are not so. A military man 


described it some years since in the following 
terms :—“ As no approach by land is to be 
apprehended on this side, the river coming 
up to the glacis, it was merely necessary to 
guard against attack by water, by providing 
a great superiority of fire, which purpose has 
been attained by merely giving the citadel 
towards the w T ater the form of a large salient 
angle, the faces of which enfilade the course 
of the river. From these faces the guns con¬ 
tinue to play upon the objects until they 
approach very near to the city, when they 
would receive the fire of the batteries parallel 
to the river. This point is likewise defended 
by adjoining bastions, and a counterguard, 
which covers them. The five regular bastions 
are towards the land; the bastions have all 
very salient orillons, behind which are retired 
circular flanks, extremely spacious, and an 
inverse double flank at the height of the 
berme. This double flank would be an ex¬ 
cellent defence, and would serve to retard the 
passages of the ditch, as from its form it 
cannot be enfiladed. The orillon preserves it 
from the effect of ricochet shot, and it is not 
to be seen from any parallel. The berme 
opposite to the curtain serves as a road to it, 
and contributes to the defence of the ditch 
like a fausse-bray. The ditch is dry, with a 
cunette in the middle, which receives the 
water of the river by means of two sluices, 
which are commanded by the fort. The 
counterscarp and covered way are excellent; 
every curtain is covered with a large half- 
moon, without flanks, bonnet, or redoubt, but 
the faces mount thirteen pieces of heavy 
artillery each, thus giving to the defence of 
these ravelins a fire of twenty-six guns. The 
demi-bastions wdiich terminate the five regular 
fronts on each side are covered by a counter¬ 
guard, of which the faces, like the lialf-moons, 
are pierced with thirteen embrasures. These 
counterguards are connected with.two re¬ 
doubts, constructed in the place of arms of 
the adjacent re-entering angles ; the whole is 
faced and palisaded with care, kept in admi¬ 
rable condition, and capable of making a 
vigorous defence against any army, however 
formidable. The advanced works are exe¬ 
cuted on an extensive scale, and the angles of 
the half-moons, being extremely acute, project 
a great way, so as to be in view 7 of each other 
beyond the flanked angle of the polygon, and 
capable of taking the trenches in the rear at 
an early period of the approach.” The above 
description will in the main suit for the present 
condition of the fortress. Some alterations 
have been made of late years, more with a 
view to convenience than defence. It is the 
general opinion of military men that it has 
been planned on too extensive a scale to 



70 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. Ill 


answer its original intention, which was 
merely to serve in an extremity as a place of 
retreat. The number of men required to 
garrison it would be sufficient to keep the 
field against any enemy which India could 
furnish. Lord Clive, who designed it, is 
blamed for this; but "Clive was not an edu¬ 
cated soldier, he was rather one by intuition, 
and ought hardly to be held responsible for 
imperfections of military engineering. After 
the battle of Plassey it was natural for Clive 
to think that Calcutta might have to be 
defended, not merely against native, but 
European enemies, or both combined, and an 
army which could make head upon the plains 
against any native force, might not be strong 
enough to keep the field in the presence of 
native forces and European auxiliaries. Ten 
thousand men would be required to defend 
the place, and fifteen thousand can be gar¬ 
risoned within it. Its cost to the company 
lias been two millions sterling, a sum which 
is very far beyond its worth. The barracks 
are handsome, spacious, and well adapted for 
their purpose. 

Between the fort and the town there is an 
extensive level space, called the esplanade. 
On the edge of this stands the government 
house, erected by the Marquis Wellesley. 
Continued on in a line with it is a range of fine 
mansions, with stuccoed fronts, and pleasant 
green verandahs. The government house is 
the most striking building in Calcutta; its 
appearance is much more imposing than Fort 
William, which has very little elevation. In 
the eyes of the natives, government house is 
of great importance, and the English residents 
of Calcutta are not a little proud of its splen¬ 
dour. It is a very extensive pile, and has 
four wings, one at each corner of the building, 
which contain the private apartments; the 
council-room, which occupies the north-east 
corner, is a splendid room, worthy of the 
building, and the purpose for which it is set 
apart. In the centre of the pile there are 
two rooms of very great magnificence : the 
lowest is paved with marble of a dark grey 
tint, and supported by Doric columns, chu- 
named, resembling marble; above this is 
the ball-room, floored with dark polished 
Indian wood, and supported by Ionic pillars. 
These rooms are lighted by superb cut glass 
lustres, and the ceilings are painted in a 
very superior style. Competent and severe 
critics allow that the decorations of these 
rooms are most tasteful. What scenes of am¬ 
bition, blighted fortunes, baffled hopes, eager 
aspirations, unprincipled intrigue, fortunate 
policy, and humiliated greatness, have been 
witnessed within these gorgeous'apartments ! 
How often have dethroned princes passed 


with unshod feet, the token of defeat and 
extorted homage, across those flags of marble 
and choice Indian floors! Short as is the 
time since that palace has been opened for 
the reception of the British rulers of India, 
events have transpired within it full of ro¬ 
mantic interest, and replete with the fate of 
thrones and dynasties, and of the mightiest 
empire upon which the orient sun ever shone ! 

Government house does not stand alone in 
beauty. The custom house is a good build¬ 
ing. Bishop’s College is a Gothic structure 
of quadrangular form; on the north side is 
a tower, which is sixty-five feet high, and 
twenty-five feet deep. The town hall is 
spacious, and accommodates large public 
meetings, which frequently assemble there, 
not only for civic business, but to celebrate 
the anniversaries of religious, philanthropic, 
and scientific societies. Public dinners and 
balls are given in it also. The courts of jus¬ 
tice are not only important, but impressive in 
their exterior effect. There are a jail, an 
hospital, a club-house for the Bengal Club, 
the adjutant-general’s and qxiartermaster- 
general’s offices, the Jesuits’ college, Hindoo 
and Mohammedan colleges, and many other 
notable edifices, among the most remarkable 
of which are the Metcalfe Hall, the mint, and 
the medical college. The Metcalfe Hall is a 
building which may be justly called magnifi¬ 
cent. It contains an extensive public library, 
and the library and museum of the Asiatic 
Society—a society planned by Sir W. Jones 
on his way out to India. It also affords accom¬ 
modation to the Agricultural Society of Ben¬ 
gal. This noble building was raised in com¬ 
memoration of Lord Metcalfe, whose admin¬ 
istration of government in India was so re¬ 
nowned. The mint is a vast building—one 
of the largest piles of buildings in existence 
for civil administrative purposes. There the 
“circulating medium” of India receives its 
form and impress. There are few specimens 
of architectural skill and taste in Calcutta 
which equal the medical college, which is as 
useful as its outline is attractive. 

Architectural taste is not confined to build¬ 
ings for educational, governmental, or other 
secular purposes: Hindoo temples and mos¬ 
ques have their peculiarities of style, and all 
the religious sects of Christianity have their 
churches, many of which are of large size 
and superior structure. The grandest Chris¬ 
tian edifice in the city is the English cathe¬ 
dral. It ow'es its existence to the zeal of 
Dr. Wilson, Bishop of Calcutta, and cost 
£50,000. Her majesty presented the com¬ 
munion service, which is superb. She also 
sanctioned the bestowal of the painting of the 
Crucifixion, by West and Forrest, originally 



Chap. III.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


77 


designed for St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, 
by his majesty King George III. The 
Honourable East India Company showed a 
profuse liberality in this undertaking, granting 
the ground on which the building stands, 
appointing two chaplains, to be paid from 
its treasury, and bestowing nearly one-third 
of the whole expense of the erection. It is 
thus described by one who has seen it:— 
“ The Btyle of the architecture is the English 
Perpendicular Gothic, with a few variations, 
occasioned by the climate; it is, in fact, 
Indo, or Christian Gothic. The tower and 
spire are built after the model of the 
admired Norwich Cathedral, with improve¬ 
ments suggested by that of Canterbury. Most 
of the details of the ornaments, externally 
and internally, are taken from the finest spe¬ 
cimens of York Minster. The building is 
constructed of a peculiar kind of brick, spe¬ 
cially prepared for the purpose. It is dressed 
with Chunar stone, and well covered and 
ornamented inside and out with chunam , 
which takes a polish like marble.” * 

The portion of Calcutta occupied by the 
native population lies along the river to the 
north. It is an extremely wretched place. 
Much as Europeans are accustomed to con¬ 
trasts in their capitals between the quarters 
occupied by the rich and the poor, they can 
have no conception of the antithetical force 
of contrast in this respect presented by Cal¬ 
cutta. The streets are narrow-—so narrow, 
that they are frequently only just broad 
enough for an elephant to pass through. 
They are as dirty as they are confined, and, 
being unpaved, are, at certain seasons, in a 
condition the most abominable, and sometimes, 
from the nuisances which abound, altogether 
impassable for Europeans. The better class 
of houses in “the native town” are built of 
brick, two stories high, with flat terraced 
roofs ; these, however, bear a small proportion 
to the mud huts, with tiled roofs, the sides 
being sometimes of bamboos, often only con¬ 
sisting of mats. Such fragile and inflam¬ 
mable buildings often take fire, and fearful 
conflagrations spread through that part of 
the town; the European portion, in conse¬ 
quence of the site, composition, and style of 
the buildings, and their frequent isolation, 
escapes on these occasions. The sufferings 
of the natives are very great at such times ; 
for although all the materials for building are 
plentiful, the people are extremely poor, and 
the division of labour occasioned by preju¬ 
dices of various kinds makes all building ex¬ 
pensive. If fires do not ravage the mansions 
of the Europeans, the white ant is as sure, if 
a slower enemy, and buildings often become 

* Stoccjuder. 


insecure by its devouring energy, the beams and 
other timbers being completely sapped when 
there is no exterior appearance of mischief. 

The bazaars constitute one of the peculi¬ 
arities of an oriental town, and Calcutta 
abounds in bazaars. There the native mer¬ 
chants, and vendors of all conceivable com¬ 
modities, practise their ingenuity ; and there 
the most crafty European Jews would find 
their match in the expert operations of deal¬ 
ings less ingenuous than ingenious. The 
bazaar affords a lounge to the European dis¬ 
posed to pass time there; and if acquainted 
with a fair number of the languages of India, 
he may hear, and participate in, a great deal 
of gossip quite beyond the conception of occi¬ 
dental imaginations, either as to subject or 
manner. 

The country around Calcutta is, as before 
noticed, champaign, rich, verdant, but little 
varied, except by the grouping of the woods. 
The rice culture makes the country swampy 
in many parts. The river’s banks, above as 
well as below the town, are pretty. 

About twelve miles distant, at Dum Dum, 
are the artillery barracks, which are spacious, 
pleasantly situated, and an agreeable resort 
from Calcutta. At a distance of sixteen miles 
Barrackpore is situated, where a number of 
native regiments, mustering the strength of a 
division, have cantonments. This place is 
also much visited from Calcutta. There are 
villas, and commercial settlements for various 
purposes, scattered over the flat country for 
an equal distance, to which the European 
residents of Calcutta make occasional journeys; 
but Barrackpore is perhaps the pleasantest 
resort, and the most frequently selected. 
Being partly situated on the river, its site 
is picturesque ; the way to it by land lies 
through a beautiful demesne of the governor- 
general. From the river the landing is made 
by a magnificent ghaut, and in sailing past 
the residence of the governor-general is 
visible through openings in the clumps of tall 
trees which crown the banks. 

On the opposite side of the river is Seram- 
pore, the citadel of Christian missions in India. 
This place is very little resorted to from Cal¬ 
cutta, although to good taste more attractive 
than Barrackpore; but the residence of offi¬ 
cers and their families at that station, and the 
frequent presence of the governor-general, 
give it an interest denied to its prim but plea¬ 
sant neighbour on the other side of the river. 
The esplanade at Seram pore is very fine ; the 
buildings which range along it deserve all the 
appellations of commendation usually applied 
to them. There is no town in India where 
order, cleanliness, and good taste, prevail as 
in Serampore. This superior taste extends 



78 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMTIRE 


[Chap. III. 


to the boats which belong to it, and which 
glide so gracefully past the rougher craft of 
the English settlements. The morality and 
social order of this city of the Danes is in 
keeping with its exterior beauty and the 
glory of its architecture. Truly, our Scandi¬ 
navian brothers who founded this elect of the 
cities of India, deserve all honour for the 
skill, enterprise, perception of the beautiful, 
and value for the true, which, in their mate¬ 
rial and spiritual labours, they proved them¬ 
selves to possess. There are many natives 
of consequence residing at Serampore; they 
also live in some state, their habitations 
displaying much grandeur, although less 
elegant than those of Europeans. The 
native dwellings are constructed more with 
a view to seclusion; they can, however, 
be seen from the river, peeping through the 
trees in which they are embowered, as open¬ 
ings are left for glimpses of the sacred flood 
as it rolls its heavy current along. 

Calcutta and its neighbourhood constitute 
a subject so large, that many chapters might 
be exhausted upon it. Under the heads of 
government, commerce, customs, and manners, 
it will be necessary again to refer to its im¬ 
portance, and to the influence of those who 
reside within its confines upon the destinies 
of India and of all the East. Far over the 
oriental lands which bound the dominions of 
the East India Company, Calcutta, its beauty, 
pomp, and power, are talked of. In the 
populous cities of China, in the mountains 
of Nepaul and Thibet, among the Birmans, 
away to the west and north-west, to Teheran 
and Central Asia, to the shores of the Cas¬ 
pian, the Euxine, and the Bosphorus, men 
eagerly listen to fabulous tales of the gran¬ 
deur, greatness, and resources of the govern¬ 
ment of India. Calcutta is associated in 
men’s minds in all these wide-spread realms 
as a city of lavish splendour and exhaust¬ 
less wealth. 

One of the divisions of the province 
of Bengal is called the Sunderbunds. This 
is to the south of the presidency, and 
stretches one hundred and eighty miles along 
the sea-coast. It is a region of salt marshes 
and forests. The glance given of this district 
in the general description of India is suffi¬ 
cient for the purposes of this History. It is 
here only to necessary to state that all at¬ 
tempts to reduce this woody and marshy 
region to cultivation have been only partially 
successful. It still continues to be a wild 
and inhospitable region, only inhabited by a 
few fakeers, whose habitations are wretched, 
and whose lives are in constant peril. Wood¬ 
cutters resort to the forest and jungle of this 
district, where they frequently perish in their I 


adventurous occupation, devoured by alli¬ 
gators or beasts of prey. Tigers, as noticed 
in another page, abound in this region ; they 
attack the woodcutters and fakeers, often 
making a prey of them. Even v r hen these 
unfortunate men navigate the channels of 
water which intersect this wild place in every 
direction, the tiger is so ferocious, that he 
will swim after the boats, and frequently suc¬ 
ceeds in the destruction of those on board. 
The Ganges has eight mouths in this region, 
and all the rivers and channels that so 
drearily intersect it are filled by its waters. 
There are two large currents, one called the 
Sunderbund passage, and the other the Ballia- 
ghaut passage. The former takes an exten¬ 
sive circuit, passing through the widest and 
deepest of the minor streams, and finally 
empties itself into the Hoogly. The Ballia- 
ghaut opens into a shallow lake to the east of 
Calcutta. These rivers, or passages, as they 
are called, flow for two hundred miles through 
thick forest. So narrow'' in some places are 
the channels of the rivers, and so dense the 
forests, that the masts of the vessels touch 
the branches of the trees. At other places 
the channels expand into broad marshy lakes, 
which, notwithstanding the w r oods within 
view, are monotonous and dreary. 

Saugor Island, which is about twenty miles 
long and five broad, is situated on the east 
side of the Hoogly River, about latitude 
21° 40' north. It is a healthy station for the 
crews of ships, and formerly it had a higher 
reputation in this respect, when the upper 
part of the Hoogly was more subject to 
disease, arising from the rapid decomposition 
of vegetable matter on its banks. Various 
circumstances, natural and artificial, have 
contributed to the better sanitary condition 
of the part of the river near to Calcutta. 
This island is celebrated in India as a place 
of pilgrimage. Hindoos resort to it, because 
there the most sacred portion of the Ganges 
forms its junction with the sea. Here old 
persons, far advanced in life, and children, 
are offered to the river deity, and the bar¬ 
barities of heathenism, and of the Hindoo 
form of it in particular, are exemplified. 
The few persons resident on the island at 
the beginning of this century worshipped a 
sage named Capila. The place seems to 
have had some importance in ancient Hindoo 
history, and remains of tanks and temples 
are still to be seen. The jungle and forest 
of the island were the cover of a peculiarlv 
ferocious breed of the Bengal tiger. A com¬ 
pany of Europeans and natives, under the 
direction of Dr. Dunlop, cleared and settled a 
large portion of the dry country, and drained 
the marshy lands. 



Chap. III.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST, 


79 


The district of Backergunge is marked on 
Wylde’s large map as first in his list of civil 
stations in the Bengal presidency. It is situ¬ 
ated to the north-east of the Sunderbunds. 
At the close of the sixteenth century a com¬ 
bined incursion of the Mughs and Portuguese, 
then settled at Chittagong, laid the country 
Avaste, and it has never fully recovered from 
the effect of that predatory inroad. The 
country is, nevertheless, fertile, producing 
two rice crops. Wild beasts, and men whose 
habits would justify the designation of wild 
being applied to them, prowl about a consider¬ 
able portion of this territory. The Dacoits, 
or river-pirates, have been of late years 
chased and punished severely, but are not 
exterminated. Half a century ago gangs of 
Dacoits committed every species of depreda¬ 
tion, and perpetrated horrible cruelties, and 
the Bengal tiger roamed about, a formidable 
enemy to the peaceful settler. The popula¬ 
tion consists of Hindoos, Mohammedans, and 
Portuguese. The first, in proportion to the 
second, is as five to two. The Portuguese 
colonies are in the southern part, and the 
colonists are generally inferior, mentally and 
physically, to either Hindoos or Moham¬ 
medans. They are spare and feeble, and 
blacker than the native races, by whom they 
are much despised. This circumstance strik¬ 
ingly illustrates the power of a tropical climate 
to deteriorate Europeans in colour and phy¬ 
sical capacity. 

The district of Hoogly, which takes its 
name from the Hoogly River, is not remark¬ 
able in any way, its principal characteristics 
being similar to those of Bengal generally. 
The city of Hoogly is, however, worthy of 
notice. It is situated on the west side of the 
river, twenty-six miles above Calcutta, lati¬ 
tude 22° 54' north, longitude 88° 28' east. 
During the reign of the Moguls this city was 
one of great importance. Several European 
powers had factories there, and the commerce 
was considerable. In 1632, about eight years 
before the English settled there, and when 
the Portuguese were in possession of it, a 
Mogul army besieged and sacked it, a feAv 
only of the Portuguese escaping by means of 
their ships. In 1686 an accidental quarrel 
arose between the English and the Mogul’s 
people. The garrison of the English factory, 
aided by a ship of war, inflicted a severe 
chastisement upon the place, and spiked all 
the cannon of the Mogul garrison. Five 
hundred houses were consumed in the con¬ 
flagration caused by the conflict. This was 
a remarkable incident, being the first battle 
fought by the British in Bengal. The power 
of the Mogul was, however, such that the 
English were glad to consent to terms of 


peace which w 7 ere humiliating. The town is 
not now one of great consideration, but has 
still a tolerably large trade and a numerous 
population. 

Nuddea is a district north of Calcutta, 
between the twenty-second and twenty-fourth 
degrees of north latitude. There is nothing 
to distinguish it so particularly from the 
general features of Bengal as to call for sepa¬ 
rate description. It is, however, remarkable 
in the British History of India as comprising 
within it the town of Plassey, where Clive 
decided in battle the fate of Bengal, and ulti¬ 
mately that of India. 

The district of Moorshedabad is only re¬ 
markable as containing the city of the same 
name, which was the capital of Bengal imme¬ 
diately before the British established their 
power. It is situated about one hundred and 
twelve miles north of Calcutta. It stands on 
a very sacred branch of the Ganges, called 
the Bhagirathi, or Cossimbuzaar River. In 
1704 Moorshed Cooly Khan transferred his 
seat of government to it, and gave it the 
name it bears instead of its previous one, 
Mucksoosabad. It is a miserable, filthy, and 
unhealthy place, containing one hundred and 
seventy-five thousand inhabitants. There is, 
however, a great deal of inland traffic, and 
the river is usually croAvded with sailing 
craft, except during the long dry season. 
The town of Cossimbuzaar may be considered 
a part of Moorshedabad, and the port of it, 
as at that spot the river traffic centres: Jt 
is only a mile from Moorshedabad. The 
population is very considerable, perhaps as 
numerous as in any inland trading town of 
the Bengal province. Its manufacture and 
commerce are considerable, silk being the 
staple commodity. 

The town of Berhampore is only six miles 
distant from the former places, on the eastern 
bank of the same river. A brigade of troops 
occupies fine cantonments there, and, com¬ 
paratively, many European gentlemen are 
resident there. According to competent 
authorities, the situation is pleasant and 
salubrious. 

About thirty miles N.N.W. of Moorshed¬ 
abad is the town of Sooty, remarkable for the 
defensive preparations against the English 
made there by Soorajah-ad-Dowlah, wdm 
believed that their ships could come up the 
eastern branch of the Ganges to the northern 
point of the Cassemba Island, and then go 
down the Bhagirathi to Moorshedabad. He ac¬ 
cordingly directed piles of vast magnitude and 
strength to be driven into the bed of the river: 
this work vras so effectually accomplished, 
that the river has ever since been unnavigable 
for any craft except boats, and in the drv 



80 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


seasons the passage is obstructed against even 
them. In 1763 a battle was fought here 
between the troops of Meer Cossim and the 
English, and the latter had their usual fortune 
—victory. 

Chittagong district is on the south-east of 
the Bengal province, between 21° and 23° north 
latitude. It has long been noted for its wildness, 
and a large portion of it is an exception to 
the general flatness of the province. The 
Mughs, driven from Birmah, inhabit it, and 
are physically a finer race than the feeble 
Bengalees of the district, hut are remarkable 
for their irregular features and bad expression 
of countenance. Various conflicts at the 
latter end of the last century, and beginning 
of the present, of a desultory nature arose 
there between the Birmans and British, in 
consequence of violation of territory by the 
former. The town of Islamabad, a place of 
some commercial importance, is in this dis¬ 
trict. It is also the habitation of the Rookies, 
a small but muscular race of robbers, who in 
features resemble the Chinese. Sundeep Isle * 
is situated in this district, at the mouth of the 
great Megna, formed by the united current 
of the Ganges and Brahmapootra Rivers. At 
the close of the sixteenth, and beginning of 
the seventeenth century, it was the abode or 
rendezvous of a set of daring pirates, chiefly 
Portuguese, headed by a common sailor of 
that nation, named Sebastian, who carried on 
war with surrounding princes, repeatedly de¬ 
feating them, and spreading the terror of his 
name for a great distance in those parts of 
Eastern Asia. Being a coarse and brutal 
tyrant, he was at last an object of hatred to 
His own followers, who forsook him, and he 
finally fell before one of the native rulers whom 
before he had despised. 

Dacca-Jelalpore district is situated be¬ 
tween the twenty-third and twenty-fourth 
degrees of north latitude. This district suffered 
horribly in the memorable famine of 1787. At 
that time extensive tracts—such as Bawul, 
Cossimpore, and Taliabad—were utterly de¬ 
populated, and during the first half of the 
present century continued in a wild state, 
overgrown with jungle, and infested with 
elephants. Great progress in improved cul¬ 
tivation has been made in Dacca ; large tracts 
have been cleared, villages have sprung up, 
temples and obelisks have been erected. 
Schools have been instituted by the natives 
themselves, in which the Bengalee is gram¬ 
matically taught, and the religion and law of 
the Plindoos. Muslin fabrics have been 
manufactured extensively, but the cheap pro¬ 
ductions of England now compete with them 
on their own ground. This district was 
* Somadwipa —the isle of the moon. 


[Chap. III. 

notorious, during the first quarter of the 
present century, for the public sale of slaves; 
on these occasions regular deeds of sale were 
executed. Up to a recent date the whole dis¬ 
trict was remarkable for crime of almost every 
kind; violence, murder, robbery, and perjury, 
seemed to be the chief offences. The Mo¬ 
hammedans were far more frequently offenders 
than the Hindoos in cases of violence, the 
latter in cases of fraud and perjury. 

The town of Dacca is both a civil and 
military station, and is a place of much im¬ 
portance. It is built on a branch of the 
Ganges, named the Booree Gunga, or Old 
Ganges, which is a mile wide before the 
town. The water communication with the 
interior offers great commercial advantages, 
and the finest muslin which perhaps has been 
ever manufactured at one time formed the 
staple trade. By road it is one hundred and 
eighty miles from Calcutta. The neighbour¬ 
hood is remarkable for its perpetual verdure. 
It is not one of the ancient cities of Bengal, 
although third in point of population and 
importance, and was at one time the capital of 
Eastern Bengal. In the reign of Aurung- 
zebe it reached the acme of its splendour, 
vestiges of which remain in its varied and 
extensive ruins of public edifices. Remains 
of great causeways and bridges, caravanserai, 
gates, palaces, and mosques, are in wonderful 
profusion. Its vicinity appears to have been 
always prolific, verdant, and beautiful, for the 
remains of vast gardens—such as are to be 
found in the neighbourhood of few cities of 
the greatest magnitude — may be traced 
through the jungle by which their sites are 
now overrun. The city is not now inhabited 
by so rich a class of natives as formerly, bid 
it is increasingly populous with the indus¬ 
trious classes, and is greatly expanding. I< 
is deemed one of the most wealthy cities in 
India. During the reign of the Moguls if 
was a rendezvous for a large fleet, as many 
as seven hundred and sixty-eight armed 
cruisers having belonged to it. The super - 
stition of the people assumes a gayer form 
here than in other parts of Bengal. They 
render most homage to river-gods, and per¬ 
form various aquatic ceremonies of a pictu¬ 
resque and joyous kind. The Mohammedans 
adopt similar customs in honour of Elias, the 
prophet, whom they believe, or pretend, was 
a patron of rivers. In the Dacca district, at 
Cliangpore, the most delicious oranges in the 
world are produced. 

Sylhet district is very unlike the southern 
and western parts of Bengal. It lies between 
the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth degrees of 
north latitude. It is bounded on the north 
and east by an elevated mountain ridge, where 





CllAP. HI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


81 


the inhabitants are in a very wild state. It 
has no town of minch importance, Sylhet 
being its capital, the neighbourhood of which 
is studded with picturesque conical hills, 
crowned with wood to their summits. The 
district is remarkable for its varied natural 
productions. As shown on another page, 
tea-plants of an excellent quality .have been 
discovered on the hill-sides. It contains the 
largest orange groves in the world, and they 
are only excelled by those of Changpore in 
excellence. Chunam (lime) is found in the 
mountains. Large quantities of wax, and 
some ivory, are also produced. Elephants 
are wild in some portions of the uncultivated 
territory. Coal has also been found near the 
surface. The district is well watered, and 
the streams, fed in the rainy Beason from the 
mountains, deluge the lower lands, so as to 
ensure good rice crops. Between Sjlhet and 
China only a few hundred miles intervene, 
but the country is utterly wild and inhos¬ 
pitable. 

Rukgpore district is situated between the 
twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth degree of north 
latitude. It contains little to characterise it 
as a district. In the neighbourhood of the 
town of Goalpara there are some descendants 
of the Portuguese settlers, who were thus 
described a few years ago by a gentleman 
acquainted with their condition :—“ Here they 
are termed Choldar, which seems to be a cor¬ 
ruption of soldier. None of them can either 
read or write ; only two or three know a few 
words of Portuguese, and they have entirely 
adopted the dress of the natives. The only 
European customs they retain are that the 
women courtesy, and the men show, by the 
motion of the hand as they pass, that they 
would take off their hat if they had one, 
Notwithstanding the want of this distin¬ 
guished covering, the men retain some portion 
of European activity, and are much feared by 
the natives, who employ them as messengers 
in making a demand, such as the payment of 
a debt, to a compliance with which they thirik 
a little fear may contribute. The females 
gain a subsistence chiefly by sewing, and dis- 
tilling spirituous liquors, of which last article 
the men consume as much as they can afford, 
and retail the remainder. Concerning the 
Christian religion they appear to know little 
or nothing, nor have they any priests. Some¬ 
times they go to Bawul, near Dacca, in order 
to procure a priest to marry them, but in 
general this is too expensive, and they con¬ 
tent themselves with the public acknowledg¬ 
ment of their marriages.” The districts and 
towns thus described are all that can, within 
the limits of a work like the present, be 
selected for notice in the Bengal province. 

VOL. i. 


Within the presidency of Bengal is another 
province, that of Bahar, called “ Cooch Bahar.” 
to distinguish it from the province of which 
Patna is the capital. The natural character 
of the province, and the social character of 
the people, differ too little from those of the 
province of Bengal and its inhabitants for 
particular detail. The old capital of Bahar 
was once the metropolis of both provinces ; it 
is called Gour. The present town is insignifi¬ 
cant, but the ruins of the once great city are 
extensive and interesting, and deserve notice 
here. They have been thus described by one 
who had the best opportunity for ascertaining 
the accuracy of what he wrote :—“ The ruins 
of this town extend along the banks of the 
Old Ganges, and probably occupy a space of 
twenty square miles, which, as Indian cities 
are usually built, would not contain any very 
enormous population. Several villages now 
stand on its site, and eight market-places, 
sufficiently contiguous to form a town, have 
been estimated to contain three thousand 
houses, many of which are of brick, procured 
from the debris of the ancient city. Some 
progress has also been made in bringing the 
surface under cultivation, but the undertaking 
is much impeded by the great number of 
dirty tanks, swarming with alligators, mus- 
quitoes, and all sorts of vermin, and choked 
up with pestilential vapours. The soil is of 
extraordinary fertility, and well suited for 
the mango and mulberry. The principal 
ruins are a mosque, built of a black stone, 
called by former visitors marble, but Dr. 
Francis Buchanan considered it to be the 
black hornblende, or indurated pitstone, as 
he could not discover one piece of marble, 
either of the calcareous or of the harder kind. 
The bricks, which are of a most solid compo¬ 
sition, have been sold, and carried away to 
Maldah, and the neighbouring towns on the 
Mohamanda, and even Moorshedabad has 
been supplied with bricks from this mass. 
The situation of Gour is nearly central to the 
populous part of Bengal and Bahar, and not 
far from the junction of the principal rivers 
which form the excellent inland navigation. 
Lying to the east of the Ganges, it was 
secured against any sudden invasion from the 
only quarter where hostile operations might 
be apprehended. No part of the site of 
ancient Gour is nearer to the present bank of 
the Ganges than four miles and a half, and 
some parts which were originally washed by 
that river are now twelve miles from it. A 
small stream that runs past it communicates 
with its west side, and is navigable, during 
the rainy seasons. On the east, and in some 
places within two miles, it has the Mahamuddy 
River, which is always navigable, and com- 

M 



82 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. III. 


municates with the Ganges. The name of 
Gour is apparently derived from gur, which 
both in the ancient and modern languages of 
India signifies raw sugar, and from the San¬ 
scrit term for manufactured sugar (sarcara) 
are derived the Persian, Greek, Latin, and 
modern European names of the cane and its 
produce. Goura, or, as it is commonly called, 
Bengalese, is the language spoken in the 
country of which the ancient city of Gour 
was the capital, and still prevails in all the 
districts of Bengal, excepting some tracts on 
the frontier, but it is spoken in the greatest 
purity throughout the eastern, or Dacca divi¬ 
sion of the province. Although Goura be 
the name of Bengal, yet the Brahmins who 
bear that appellation are not inhabitants of 
Bengal, but of Upper Hindoostan. They 
reside chiefly in the province of Delhi, while 
the Brahmins of Bengal are avowed colonists 
from Kanoje.” 

The province of Bahar, in distinction from 
which the district of Bahar in the Bengal 
province is called “ Oooch Bahar,” lies to the 
north and north-west of the Bengal province, 
and within the Bengal presidency. It is 
situated between the twenty-second and 
twenty-seventh degrees of north latitude. 
It is one of the most fertile and populous 
portions of the Bengal presidency. Its prin¬ 
cipal rivers are the Ganges, the Sone, the 
Gunduck, the Dummodah, the Caramnassa, 
and the Dewah. The inhabitants are more 
robust than those of the Bengal province. 
The productions of the soil are also more in 
harmony with European wants and tastes, 
arising from the higher latitude. The reli¬ 
gion of the people is Brahminieal. Gaya, the 
birthplace of Buddha, is within the province, 
but the Buddhists were either driven out by 
the Brahmins, or made to feign conversion to 
their teaching. Pilgrims, however, repair to 
Gaya from great distances, whose zeal for 
Buddhism prompts them to seek the birth¬ 
place of the founder of their religion. The 
Jains also take an interest in that place, where 
they allege their religion flourished before 
that of the Buddhists, which is not probable. 
In South Bahar the language spoken is called 
Magodha; it appears to be derived from the 
Sanscrit, and has a close affinity also to 
Bengalee and Hindoostanee. One-fourth of 
the population profess the Mohammedan 
religion. 

The district of Tyrhoot is situated in the 
north-west corner of the Bahar province. It iB 
chiefly within the twenty-seventh and twenty- 
eighth degrees of north latitude. The country 
is hilly, and the tea-plant has been recently 
discovered on the slopes of the hills as an 
indigenous production. The country is 


well watered, but portions of it are subject 
to terrible inundations from the too rapid 
increase of the Gunduck River in the rainy 
season. Several instances have occurred 
within a few years in which the sudden rush 
of the flood has swept away the strongest 
dykes and barriers erected to resist it, carry¬ 
ing desolation over a large area. The ordinary 
depth of water in the rivers is insufficient for 
commercial purposes. The district is remark¬ 
able for its excellent breed of horses, in which 
the lower parts of Bengal are so deficient. It 
is considered much healthier than Bengal 
proper, or even the lower grounds of Bahar. 
The Gunduck River, by which it is chiefly 
watered, is, near its source, called the Sal- 
grami, from the schistous stones, .containing 
the remains or traces of ammonites, being 
found in the bed of the stream. These are 
small round stones, about three or four inches 
in diameter; they are perforated sometimes 
in several places by worms. The spiral re¬ 
treats of antediluvian molluscas, being taken 
by the superstitious Hindoos for “ visible 
traces of Vishnu,” are worshipped under the 
designation of Salgrams. Some of these 
bring a great price, as much as £200 having 
been given by wealthy natives for one. The 
following is the account which Hindoo legend 
gives of their title to the high reverence in 
which they are held:—Vishnu, the Preserver, 
created nine planets, to regulate the destinies 
of the human race. Sane (Saturn) commenced 
his reign by proposing to Brahma that he 
(Brahma) should submit to his influence for 
twelve years. Brahma referred him to Vishnu, 
but he was equally averse to the baleful in¬ 
fluence of this planet, and therefore desired 
him to call next day. On Saturn’s departure, 
Vishnu meditated how he could escape the 
misery of a twelve years’ subjugation to so 
inauspicious a luminary, and the result was 
that he assumed the form of a mountain. 
Next day Saturn was not able to find Vishnu, 
but soon discovered that he had become tho 
mountain Gandaki, into which the persecuting 
Saturn immediately entered in the form of a 
worm, called Vagra Kita (the thunderbolt 
worm), and began to perforate the stones of 
the mountain, and in this manner he perse¬ 
vered in afflicting the animated mountain lor 
the twelve years, the space of time comprised 
in his original demand. At the end of this 
suffering the deity Vishnu resumed his own 
form, and directed that the stones of the 
mountain Gandaki should be in future wor¬ 
shipped. On being asked by Brahma how 
the genuine stones might be distinguished, 
he said they would have twenty-one marks— 
the same number that were on his body. 
Since that time the Salgrams of the river 



Chap. III.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


Gunduck * have been revered with idolatrous 
veneration. During the hot months the 
Brahmins suspend a pan, perforated with a 
hole, through which the water drops on the 
stone, and keeps it cool, and being caught 
below in another pan, is in the evening drank 
by them as an act of great piety and sanctify¬ 
ing efficacy. The Brahmins sell these stones, 
although trafficking in images is generally 
held by them to be dishonourable. It is for¬ 
bidden in the sacred books to bathe in this 
river, f all devout Hindoos, therefore, abstain 
from ablutions there. 

Of the Bahar province the principal district 
is the central one, which is called by the 
name of the province; there is not sufficient 
distinctive interest in the other districts to 
require separate notices in this general out¬ 
line. The greater part of the district is level 
and fertile, but there are many hills, rudely 
broken, and naked. These are frequently 
insulated, rising abruptly from the plain, and 
producing an effect upon the landscape more 
peculiar than picturesque, but relieving the 
level sameness of the country. The heart of 
the district contains three distinct clusters of 
these hills, but they are all of little elevation. 
The Ganges waters the lower regions of the 
district, and is generally deep, nowhere ford¬ 
able, and of considerable expanse, the average 
width being a mile. There are other rivers 
which also contribute their irrigating influ¬ 
ence to the fertile plain—as the Sone, the 
Punpun, the Marahar, the Dardha, the 
Phalgu, the Loeri, the Panekene; nume¬ 
rous branches of these rivers flow in various 
directions. The climate of the Bahar district 
is much cooler than even the nearest neigh¬ 
bourhoods to the soiith, so that in winter the 
natives kindle fires to sleep by. In the early 
summer hot parching winds dry up every 
vestige of vegetation. The district is remark¬ 
able for its places of pilgrimage. There are 
the river Punpun, the town of Gaya, Raja- 
griha, Baikuntha, on the Pangchane, Loha- 
danda, near Giriyak, and Chuyaban Muni. 
The first four of these gge much more fre¬ 
quented than the last two named. 

Patna is the modern capital of Bahar. It is 
situated on the right bank of the Ganges, three 
hundred and twenty miles north-west of Cal¬ 
cutta, eight hundred from Bombay, and nine 
hundred and ten from Madras. The population 
numbers about three hundred and twenty thou- 

* In Northern Hindoostan the name Gunduck is a 
general appellation for a river. 

f Some interesting papers have lately appeared in the 
journals of the Bombay Geographical Society in reference 
to the source aud current of the river Gunduck, and the 
formation of the idolised stones, but these papers are too 
minute in their topographical notices, and too much in 
detail to give even an abstract of them in these pages. 


83 

sand. This city is in many respects well situated, 
and of importance. The Ganges is there five 
miles wide, and during the rainy seasons it 
seems to spread into a sea, the opposite shore 
being scarcely discernible. Beyond the 
suburbs the river divides into two branches, 
forming an island nine miles in length. The 
town and neighbourhood are by no means 
amongst the most pleasant in India for the 
residence of Europeans, for in the rainy season 
the whole vicinage is a vast mire, such as our 
troops found the Crimea in the winters of 
their campaign; whereas in summer, like the 
Crimea also, the dust is blinding, and inces¬ 
santly whirled about by eddying winds. The 
ghauts are well constructed and imposing, 
and the stores are extensive. Being a great 
centre of the opium traffic, it is a busy place, 
and it has also considerable trade with the 
interior, especially with Nepaul, whence the 
Patna merchants bring wax, gold-dust, bull- 
tails, musk, woollen cloth named tush, and a 
variety of medicinal herbs. Saltpetre is sent 
down to Calcutta. There used to be consider¬ 
able manufacturing activity—muslin, dimity, 
&c., were made to a considerable extent, but 
since the poppy became the chief export, the 
produce of the loom has fallen off: the manu¬ 
factures of England also come into successful 
competition. 

The city of Gaya is a rival of Patna; it is 
the sacred capital of the district, as Patna is 
the commercial. It is divided into an old and 
new town. The former, inhabited chiefly by 
priests and other sacred persons, is built on a 
rock, which is elevated between a hill and the 
river Fulgo. The commercial portion lies in 
the plain by the river. Like Patna, dust in 
the hot weather, and mud in the rainy weather, 
render the lower town, at all events, intoler¬ 
able. The heat is excessive, the population 
dense, the pilgrims numerous, noisy, and 
filthy, and the inhabitants seem to have a 
partiality for being cooped up in the narrowest 
streets and most unpleasant dwelling-places. 
The morality of the place is no better than 
its physical condition; it requires all the 
vigilance of the police to prevent the pilgrims 
from being plundered, many of whom arrive 
wearing jewels, and in possession of other 
wealth. The worst class of inhabitants are 
the priests, who are openly dissolute, and 
every way dishonest. 

Buddha Gaya is a neighbouring place, and 
may be called a city of ruins. Buchanan de¬ 
scribed it as, in his time, “ situated in a plain 
of great extent west of the Nilajan River, and 
consisting of immense irregular heaps of brick 
and stone, with some traces of having been 
formerly regularly arranged, but vast quan¬ 
tities of the interior have been removed, and 



84 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. Ilf. 


the rest appear almost shapeless. The number 
of images scattered around this place for 
fifteen or twenty miles is astonishing, yet 
they appear all to have belonged to the 
great temple or its vicinity. Buddha Gaya 
was probably at one time the centre of a reli¬ 
gion, and residence of a powerful king; the 
most remarkable modern edifice is a convent 
of Samryassies.” 

The town of Dinapore is also in the district 
of Bahar, and will, unfortunately, be memo¬ 
rable to Englishmen as one of the centres of 
mutiny in the great military revolt of 1857. 
It is situated on the south bank of the Ganges, 
eleven miles west of Patna. Previous to the 
late revolt, the military buildings were very 
fine, being much superior to those even in 
England. Both the officers and njen, espe¬ 
cially in the European regiments, were quar¬ 
tered in large airy apartments.. There are 
many private houses of convenience and 
beauty occupied by military men and civilians. 
Good roads, well cultivated country, and 
pleasant gardens, exist all around. During 
the military insurrection much damage was 
done to the cantonments, and to private pro¬ 
perty in the neighbourhood. 

The division of Cuttaok, attached to the 
Bengal government, is an interesting portion 
of the territory, lying within the province of 
Orissa, which is included in the ancient 
boundaries of the Deccan; for although Orissa 
was not included by name in the Mogul 
Deccan, it geographically pertains to it, and 
is regarded by the natives as part of it. The 
general character of the British possessions 
in the large province of Orissa resembles that 
of the Deccan at large, a description of which 
is not appropriate here. It may be observed, ' 
however, that the account given by an old 
writer of its commercial disadvantages is still 
applicable, although the influence and exer¬ 
tions of the Bengal and Madras governments 
have effected a great improvement in the 
means of internal communication and traffic : 
—“ The rivers are too impetuous for naviga¬ 
tion when they are swollen by periodical 
rains, and in the hot season too shallow, j 
except near their junction with the sea, 
which is invariably obstructed by sand-banks. 
Under these circumstances, the transportation 
of grain from one place to another became at 
an early period an occupation of considerable 
importance, the roads being nearly as impass¬ 
able for wheel carriages as the rivers were for 
boats. The whole of this great interchange 
has in consequence been always transported 
on bullocks, the property of a class of people 
named Bunjaries, not aboriginal natives of 
the country, but mostly emigrants from Raj- 
pootana.” 


The condition of a large portion of the 
province of Orissa is unfavourable. The 
country is wild, and the people still more 
wild. The territory has been of late years 
much attended to by the government of Cal¬ 
cutta. Balasore, in Northern Cuttack, is a 
civil station. This place is situated on the 
south side of the Booree Bellaun River, about 
one hundred and twenty-five miles south-west 
of Calcutta. The river has considerable 
depth, but its channel is narrow, and its 
banks marshy. At the mouth there is a bar, 
over which no vessel can pass, even at spring- 
tides, which draws more than fifteen feet of 
water. The Portuguese and Dutch had fac¬ 
tories at Balasore, and the place was noted 
for its manufactures, which have fallen away 
before European competition. The native 
vessels employed in coasting are small but 
well built, and well adapted to the employ¬ 
ment in which they are engaged. Cuttack 
town is also a civil station of the Bengal 
government. It has fine military canton¬ 
ments, and is remarkable for its embank¬ 
ments, faced with cut stone, to resist the 
inundations of the Mahamuddy and Cutjoury 
Rivers. 

The district is most remarkable as contain¬ 
ing the shrine of Juggernaut. The town 
adjacent is called Pooree and Pursottam. It 
is more than three hundred miles from Cal¬ 
cutta. In 1813 voluminous parliamentary 
papers were published concerning the pil¬ 
grimages to the temple of Juggernaut. Some 
of the missionaries—Dr. Carey, the celebrated 
Baptist missionary, among the number—have 
considered that more than a million persons 
annually visited this chief resort of fanaticism. 
The following account of the place, and the 
scenes enacted there, is as appalling as it is, 
unhappily, correct:— 

“The temple containing the idol is an ill- 
formed shapeless mass of decayed granite, no 
way remarkable but as an object of Hindoo 
veneration, situated about one mile and a 
half from the shore. The country around is 
extremely sterile, the tower and temple being 
encompassed by low sand hills. From the 
sea the temple or pagoda forms an excellent 
landmark on a coast without any discrimi¬ 
nating object for navigators. It is surrounded 
by a large, populous, filthy, ill-built town, 
called Pooree, inhabited by a bad-looking, 
sickly Hindoo population, composed mostly 
of the officiating priests, and officers attached 
to the various departments dependent on the 
idol. For ten miles in circumference round 
the temple on the land-side, taking the temple 
for the central point and the sea-shore for 
the chord, the space enclosed thereby is called 
the holy land of Juggernaut, its sanctity 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


85 


Chap. III.] 

being esteemed such as to ensure future beati¬ 
tude to the Hindoo who dies within its 
bounds. By Abuul Fazel, in 1582, this place 
i3 described as follows:—‘ In the tower of 
Poorsottem, on the banks of the sea, stands 
the temple of Jagnauth, near to which are 
the images of Kishni, his brother, and their 
sister, made of sandal-wood, which are said 
to be four thousand years old.’ 

“ \\ ith respect to the origin of this image, 
we have the following legend, narrated in 
various mythological histories :—Augada, a 
hunter, while engaged in the chase, discharged 
an arrow, but, instead of hitting the prey for 
which it was intended, it pierced Krishna, 
who happened to be sitting under a tree, so 
that he died, and some unknown person hav¬ 
ing collected the bones of that incarnation, 
he put them into a box. 

“ About this time a king named Indra- 
dhuwua was performing austere worship to 
Vishnu, who directed him to form the image 
of Juggernaut, and to put the bones into its 
belly, by the doing of which action he would 
obtain the fruit of his devotion. The king 
asked who would make the image, and was 
told Viswacarma, the architect of the gods. 
To this deified mechanic he in consequence 
began to perform austere worship, which had 
such efficacy, that Viswacarma undertook to 
finish the job in one month, provided he was 
not disturbed. He accordingly commenced 
by building a temple upon an elevation called 
the Blue Mountain, in Orissa, in the course of 
one night, and then began to form the image 
in the temple; but the king was impatient, 
and after fifteen days went and looked at the 
image, in consequence of which Viswacarma 
refused to go on, and left it unfinished. The 
king was much disconcerted, and in his dis¬ 
tress offered up prayers to Brahma, who told 
him not to grieve too much, for he would 
make the image famous even in its present 
imperfect shape. Being thus encouraged, 
King Indradhuwua invited all the demigods 
to attend the sitting of it up, on which occa¬ 
sion Brahma gave it eyes, and, by performing 
worship to it, established its fame. Accord¬ 
ing to report, the original image lies in a pool 
at Juggernaut Kshetra, and it is always said 
that every third year the Brahmins construct 
a new one, into which the bones of Krishna 
are removed, and that while performing this 
exchange the officiating Brahmin acts with 
his eyes bandaged, lest the effulgence of the 
sacred relics should strike him dead. The 
image exhibited at present is a carved block 
of wood, having a frightful visage, painted 
black, with a distended mouth of a bloody 
colour, the eyes and head very large, without 
legs or hands and only fraction? of arms, but 


at grand ceremonies he is supplied with gold 
or silver arms. In the interior the attending 
Brahmins bathe, wipe him, and carry him 
about like the stump of a tree. The other 
two idols of his brother and sister are of a 
white and yellow colour, and each have dis¬ 
tinct places allotted them within the temple. 

“ The ruth , or car, on which these divinities 
are elevated, sixty feet high, resembles the 
general form of Hindoo pagodas, supported 
by very strong frames, placed on four or five 
rows of wheels, which deeply indent the 
ground as they turn under their ponderous 
load. He is accompanied by two other idols, 
his brother Bubraw, and his sister Shubudra, 
who sit on thrones nearly of equal height. The 
upper part of the cars are covered with English 
broadcloth, supplied by the British govern¬ 
ment, and are striped red and white, blue 
and yellow, and decorated with streamers and 
other ornaments. Both the walls of the 
temple and sides of the machine are covered 
with indecent sculptures. During the Ruth 
Jattra, the celebration of which varies from 
the middle of June to the middle of Jidy, 
according to the lunar year, the three images 
are brought forth with much ceremony and 
uproar, and having mounted their carriage, 
the immense machine is pushed and dragged 
along, amidst the shouts and clamour of a 
prodigious multitude, to what is called the 
idols’ garden-house, or country residence, 
distant from the temple only one mile and a 
half, but the motion is so slow, that the get¬ 
ting over this space usually occupies three or 
four days. On these occasions scenes of great 
horror frequently occur, both from accident 
and self-devotion, under the wheels of the 
tower, which, passing over the body of the 
victim, inflict instant death, by crushing the 
body to pieces, and their bruised and lace¬ 
rated carcasses are frequently left exposed 
on the spot for many days after their destruc¬ 
tion. 

“ The appellation of Juggernaut (Jagat 
Natha, lord of the world) is merely one of 
the thousand names of Vislmu, the preserving 
power, according to the Brahminical theology. 

“ The concourse of pilgrims to this temple 
is so immense, that at fifty miles distance its 
approach may be known by the quantity of 
human bones which are strewed by the way. 
Some old persons come to die at Juggernaut, 
and many measure the distance by their 
length on the ground; but, besides these 
voluntary sufferings, many endure great 
hardships, both when travelling and while 
they reside here, from exposure to the 
weather, bad food and water, and other evils. 
Many perish by dysentery, and the surround¬ 
ing country abounds with skulls and human 




HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. IV. 


SG 


bones ; but the vicinity of Juggernaut to the 
sea, and the arid nature of the soil, assist to 
prevent the contagion which would otherwise 
be generated. When this object of their 
misplaced veneration is first perceived, the 
multitude of pilgrims shout aloud, and fall to 
the ground to worship it.” 

The government used to keep the temple in 
repair, and levied a tax upon the pilgrims ; the 
revenue derived exceeded the expenditure; 
but public indignation was aroused against a 
connection of any kind existing between the 
government and a sourer of crime and ruin 
to the bodies and souls oi such multitudes, and 
the government deferred to public opinion in 
Ihis matter. 

In the Bengal provinces there are the fol¬ 
lowing civil stations :—Backergunge, Bala- 
sore (North Cuttack), Baraset, Beerbhoom, 
Behar, Bhaugulpore, Bogoorah, Bullooah, 
Burdwan, Calcutta, Chittagong Cuttack, Cut¬ 
tack (tributary mehals), Dacca, Dinajepore, 
Hoogly, Jessore, Khoonda (South Cuttack), 
Maldah,Midnapore,Monaghyr, Moorshedabad, 
Mymensing, Noakhalu, Nuddea, Patna, Pubna, 
Purneah, Rajshaleye, Rungpore, Sarun, Shah- 
abad, Sunderbunds, Sylhet, Tyrhoot, Tippe- 
rah, twenty-four Pergrnnahs. 


The military stations of the Bengal army ex¬ 
tend through the north-west provinces as well 
as those of Bengal proper. They are as follow : 
—Agra, Akyab, Allahabad, Allyghur, Ally- 
pore, Almorah, Bancoorah, Bandah, Bareilly, 
Barrackpore, Beaur, Baitool, Bisnauth (As¬ 
sam), Benares, Bhopawar, Bhurtpore, Bhau¬ 
gulpore, Burdwan, Berhampore, Buxar, Cawn- 
pore, Chenab Poonjie, Chinsurah, Chittagong, 
or Islamabad, Chunar, Dacca, Delhi, Deyra 
Dhoon, Dorundah (Chotab Nagpore), Dina- 
pore, Dum Dum, Etawah, Fort William, or 
Calcutta, Futtehghur, Ghazepore, Goruck- 
pore, Gorvahati (Assam), Gurrawarrah Am- 
ritsir, Dera Ishmail Khan, Gurdaspore, Fero- 
zepore, Jailum, Hosungabad, Hazarbaugh, 
Hansi, Hawaulbaugh, Juanpore, Jubbulpore, 
Jumaulpore, Kurnaul, Kuttack, Loodhianal, 
Lohooghaut, Lucknow, Muttra, Meerut, Mid- 
napore, Mynpooree, Mirzapore, Moorshed¬ 
abad, Moradabad, Mhow, Mullye, Mundlaisir, 
Neemuch, Nusseerabad, Patna, Petoraghur, 
Saugor, Secrole (Benares), Sutapore (Oude), 
Seharunpore, Shaghehanpore, Syler, Sultan- 
pore (Benares), Sultanpore (Oude), Khyouk 
Phyoo, Peshawur, Rawil Pindee, Wuzeer- 
abad, Attock, Lahore, Mooltan, Sealkote, 
Mutala. 


CHAPTER IV. 

DISTRICTS AND CITIES (Continued) —NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 


It has been explained that the north-western 
provinces, although connected with the Ben¬ 
gal presidency, have a separate administration 
from the Bengal provinces, under a lieutenant- 
governor. The military stations are occupied 
by the army of Bengal, and are included in 
the list which closes the last chapter. The 
civil stations of the north-western provinces 
are as follow:—Agra, Allahabad, Allyghur, 
Azinghur, Bandah (South Bundelcund), Ba¬ 
reilly, Benares, Bolundshuhur, Cawnpore, 
Delhi, Etawah, or Mynporee, Furruckabad, 
Futtehpore, Ghazepore, Goorgaon (South 
Delhi), Goruckpore, Humeerpore (North 
Bundelcund), Juanpore,'Meerut, Mirzapore, 
Moradabad, Mozuffernugger, Muttra, Pilli- 
bheet, Seharunpore, Saheswan, Shahjehan- 
pore, Hurreanah (West Delhi), Paniput 
(North Delhi), Butaulah, Gogaira, Gujerat, 
Jhung, Pindee Daden Khan, Shahpore, 
Shaskhpoora. 

Referring to the north-western provinces, 
the Times contained the following statement 
in a recent article :—“ This government em¬ 
braces the richest and most favoured countries 


of Hindoostan, and comprehends a fourth of 
even the enormous population of India. It 
represents a presidency in itself, and, indeed, 
had at one time been so constituted, though 
the idea was never actually carried out, and 
Agra still remains a dependency of Calcutta.” 

Allahabad is the province of the north¬ 
western government which lies nearest to 
Bengal, and is situated between the twenty- 
fourth and twenty-sixth degrees of north 
latitude. Watered by the Ganges, Jumna, 
Geyn, Seroo, Birmah, Arana, Caramnassa, and 
smaller rivers, the irrigation is adequate. It 
is a very productive province, the lands near 
the Ganges and the Jumna being exceedingly 
fertile; the upper parts are rocky, hilly, and 
bold. Opium, sugar, indigo, cotton, salt¬ 
petre, and diamonds, are the chief produc¬ 
tions. The district which hears the general 
name of the province produces excellent 
wheat, barley, peas, beans, and plants of 
various kinds, yielding oils and dyes. It was 
at one time famous for its manufacture of 
cotton cloth, and still a considerable quantity 
is made there. 





Chap. IV.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST 


87 


The town of Allahabad is very famous in 
its religious, military, and commercial im¬ 
portance, although less so in the last-named 
respect than in the other sources of celebrity. 
Mr. Hamilton remarks :—“ In every district 
subordinate to the English authority through¬ 
out Hindoostan the state of the police is the 
most important feature of its history, and its 
jail the most imposing edifice.” This can 
hardly apply to the city of Allahabad, which 
is more noted for its splendid fort than for 
any other building. It is placed on a tongue 
of land about a quarter of a mile from the 
city; one side of the site is washed by the 
Jumna, and on the other the Ganges flows 
very near. The third side, near the land, is 
regular as a fortification, and exceedingly 
strong. The gateway is a tasteful Grecian 
erection. The government house is a fine 
spacious, convenient building. There is also 
a superior barrack. The river site of this 
town adapts it to internal trade and military 
defence. Except the river scenery, the im¬ 
mediate neighbourhood is not fertile nor 
picturesque. The population is not nume¬ 
rous. The distance from Calcutta is a little 
less than five hundred miles, from Bombay 
seven hundred, and from Madras eight hun¬ 
dred and fifty. It is eminently holy to Hin¬ 
doo associations; this arises from the conflu¬ 
ence of the Ganges and the Jumna; and the 
natives allege that there is a subterranean 
river, named Lereswati, which forms a junction 
with both. Those who perform the prescribed 
ceremonies at this spot have, therefore, treble 
merit, and accordingly great numbers, having 
xisited Gaya and Benares, here also pay their 
tribute of devotion to the gods. Some of the 
ceremonies are of a nature singularly to ex¬ 
hibit the prostration of the native mind under 
the debasing power of idolatry. One of these 
is to sit by the river’s brink while the head 
is shaved, the devotee and the operator taking 
care that every hair shall drop into the river, 
as the result ensures a million of years in 
heaven for every hair thus received by the 
sacred confluence. Another ceremony, having 
more serious concomitants, is performed in 
the centre of the stream, the devotee having 
three water-bottles attached to his girdle, 
plunges into the deep, and is swept away; 
this is his passage to immortal bliss. Life is 
often sacrificed in the struggle of competitive 
pilgrims for the most sacred spots, and at the 
most canonical junctures of time. 

Bundelcund is a wild district of great ex¬ 
tent and comparatively small population; it is 
hilly-—the hills rugged and rough, but covered 
in most places with low coppice. This dis¬ 
trict is celebrated for its diamond mines. 
These are situated in the plain of Punnah, 


which extends for several miles round the 
town of that name. This elevated level is 
gravelly, and a great variety of beautiful 
pebbles are to be found there, among them 
diamonds. These “diamond mines” are al¬ 
leged to be the Punassa of Ptolemy. The 
profits of working them are insignificant, yet 
some fine diamonds are occasionally found. 

The town of Punnah occupies a very ele¬ 
vated site in latitude 24° 45' north, longitude 
80° 13' east. It is not very populous, and 
has few good houses. Its temples and idols 
are out of proportion numerous. Many of 
the former are of superior architecture, and 
the latter are generally adorned with precious 
stones; one idol had some years ago an eye 
which consisted of a diamond of the highest 
brilliancy, and very great value. Ruins of 
forts, tombs, a palace, and other ancient works 
are picturesque, especially as being in keep¬ 
ing with the barren plain which stretches 
away in every direction. 

Cawnpore is a district which formerly 
belonged to Oude, and is for the most part 
comprehended in the Doab* of the Ganges 
and the Jumna. The soil is productive : 
wheat, barley, Indian corn, and most Euro¬ 
pean vegetables thrive. Many European 
fruits also come to perfection there. The 
town of Cawnpore has obtained a horrid noto¬ 
riety in connection with the massacre perpe¬ 
trated there in 1857 by the Bengal mutineers. 
It stands on the west side of the Ganges, lati¬ 
tude 26° 30' north, and longitude 80° 13' east. 
It has been considered an important military 
station, capable of affording quarters in bar¬ 
rack to more than ten thousand soldiers. The 
officers nevertheless live in their own bun¬ 
galows, which are convenient and hand¬ 
some. The dust is intolerable during the 
summer season over a large area in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of the town. In history Cawnpore 
is noted as a field of many battles, but none 
will be remembered with such interest by 
British readers as the defeats sustained by 
the infamous Nana Sahib from the arms of 
Havelock and Neill in 1857, during their 
efforts to relieve the garrison, women and 
children, afterwards so cruelly massacred. 

Benares was the name of an important 
district in the Allahabad province ; now it is 
a separate division or province. It is remark¬ 
able for fertility; and also for the forest-like 
appearance of the landscape, affording shelter 
to men and cattle from the burning sun of 
the summer months, which is very intense, 

* This is a name given by the Hindoos to a tract of 
land lying between two rivers. The Doab of the Ganges 
and the Jumna is the most noted, and is comprised partly 
in the province of Allahabad, and partly in the provinces 
of Agra and Delhi. 




88 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. IV. 


although in the winter fires are not disagree¬ 
able to Europeans, and are eagerly enjoyed 
by the natives. The diseases of dysentery 
and rheumatism prevail much in the district, 
and Europeans are also much affected by 
them. The city of Benares is one of the 
most celebrated in India : it is situated 26° 30' 
north latitude, and 83° 1' east longitude. The 
population is about three-quarters of a mil¬ 
lion. The Ganges flows past it in a sweep of 
about four miles, and the city is built on the 
external curve, where the ground is elevated, 
and slopes up from the river. The city is 
therefore visible for a great distance, and to 
the river and the opposite banks presents a 
beautiful appearance, the streets and buildings 
rising in tiers from the water’s edge to the 
summit of the high bank which they crown. 
On a small scale, Algiers might give some 
notion of the picturesque effect of this ar¬ 
rangement ; or to those who are untravelled 
beyond our own isles, the towns of Youghall 
and Cove, in the county of Cork in Ireland, 
may, on a very minute scale, afford the idea. 
The streets are narrow, just admitting the 
free passage of a horseman. In many places 
passages over the streets exist from the win¬ 
dows or terraced roofs of the high houses, 
which are built of stone or brick; formerly, 
the Brahmins allege, they were built of gold, 
but turned into stone in consequence of the 
deficient respect shown by their possessors to 
the Brahmins; and also in consequence of 
some other deviations from the supposed right 
way, less creditable to the delinquents. Ac¬ 
cording to the traditions of the Brahmins, 
the city does not belong to the earth—the 
earth resting upon Amanta, the many-headed 
serpent (eternity); but Benares is borne up 
by Siva upon his trident, so that no earth¬ 
quake ever sends its vibrations through the 
foundations of the great city. This is the 
more obliging of Siva, inasmuch as his proper 
vocation is destruction. The city is inhabited 
chiefly, as to the better classes of its inhabit¬ 
ants, by Brahmins, who are represented to 
live there in numbers out of all proportion to 
the rest of the inhabitants. These Brahmins 
have, in many cases, private property; and 
in many instances also they enjoy stipends 
allowed them by rich Hindoos and princes in 
all parts of India, for the purpose of perform¬ 
ing in their behalf such religious ceremonies 
as must be performed on the spot. There 
are numerous Hindoos of wealth, rank, and 
political consequence, who take up their 
abode there because of the facilities offered 
by so holy a place for “ making their salva¬ 
tion.” According to the Brahmins, Benares 
is “ the Holy City : ” even a European dying 
there may go to heaven—a privilege also 


extended to Juggernaut. The religious in¬ 
stitutions, of every description — temples, 
shrines, sacred ghauts, schools, &c.— are 
amazingly numerous. Schools and ghauts 
have been endowed by rich Hindoos as acts 
of piety or penance, so that the youth of the 
place are instructed in Hindoo religion, law, 
and literature with great zeal; and the beau¬ 
tiful approaches from the river to the streets 
of the city are numerous beyond all compari¬ 
son with those of other towns. Nearly in the 
centre of the city there is a mosque, built by 
the Emperor Aurungzebe. It is placed on 
the highest point of land, and open to the 
river, so that it is in view of the whole sur¬ 
rounding country, and from the Ganges and 
its opposite bank. The Mohammedans are 
not numerous—they are generally computed 
at one to twenty as numerically compared 
with the Hindoos ; but this is probably too 
high a proportion to give them. The mosque 
was built by them in the day of their power, 
upon the site of a heathen temple, removed 
for the purpose, and as an act of defiance to 
the Hindoos. There is now a splendid tem¬ 
ple, which was built in the last century. 

Although Benares depends much for its 
wealth and population upon its reputation 
for sanctity, pilgrims in vast numbers con¬ 
stantly visiting and expending their wealth 
there, yet there are natives who grow rich by 
commerce ; and it is a depot of Indian manu¬ 
factures, and for the diamonds which are 
brought down from Bundelcund, for the lower 
provinces. It is also celebrated for its lapi¬ 
daries and workmen in gold. More jewels 
are polished in Benares than in any city of the 
East. A good modern writer describes it as 
“ more eastern in character than the general 
run of Hindoo towns; ” but all the Hindoo 
towns are thoroughly eastern in character, 
except where their existence is merely mo¬ 
dern, and dependent upon military canton¬ 
ments. Even the sea-board cities of Bombay 
and Madras, and the capital where the seat 
of government is, are oriental in their cha¬ 
racter, notwithstanding the presence of Euro¬ 
pean officials, merchants, and troops. 

For more than half a century Benares has 
belonged to the company; and although 
fewer Europeans reside within it than any 
other great city in India, it has been most 
peaceable. There is a general appreciation 
among the wealthy natives of the security of 
person and property afforded by the company, 
as contrasted with the insecurity in the native 
states; and this feeling is much upheld by 
the pilgrims whose journeys through the 
British possessions are safe, but insecure in 
the dominions of native princes, where they 
I are often plundered of their jewels, ornaments. 





Chap. IV.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


89 


and money, which it is well- known many of 
them carry to a large value. During the 
great mutiny of Bengal troops, it was gene¬ 
rally supposed that the people of Benares, 
excited by fanaticism, would fly to arms; but 
for the reason here given, it was not found 
difficult to preserve the post with a mere 
handful of troops. 

Benares is at once the most intelligent and 
superstitious town in India. In proportion 
to the intelligence in native law and literature 
will be found the infatuation of idolatry. The 
native education of a Hindoo gives no strength 
to his understanding ; he is made acquainted 
with a greater number of absurd legends, 
which it would be impious to doubt, and he 
becomes debased in superstition in proportion 
to the Braliminical culture he receives. The 
city is not quite three hundred miles from 
Calcutta: it is nearly eight hundred from 
Bombay and Madras. The sacredness of 
the city extends to a distance of ten miles 
around it. 

The district of Mirzapore is not important, 
except on account of the town which bears its 
name. This town is situated on the banks of 
the Ganges, about thirty miles from Benares. 
There are few inland towns in India where 
the people have shown more activity and 
enterprise. The houses are of superior struc¬ 
ture, and built of solid material; and the 
public buildings are numerous and respectable. 
Viewed from the Ganges it has a thriving 
and bustling appearance, which no other 
town on the river exhibits. The population 
can hardly be less than a hundred thousand. 

Oude is a province of Hindoostan to the 
north of Allahabad, on both sides of the 
Ganges, occupying, with the exception of the 
district of Ranpore, all the flat country 
between that river and the northern moun¬ 
tains, as well as the principal part of that 
fertile tract lying between the Ganges and the 
Jumna, known by the name of the Doab, to 
within forty miles of the city of Delhi. Oude 
and its dependencies are three hundred and 
sixty miles in length from east to west, and 
in breadth from one hundred and fifty to one 
hundred and eighty, and contain five million 
inhabitants. The capital is Lucknow. The 
sovereignty was taken away from the reign¬ 
ing family, and it was annexed to Great Bri¬ 
tain by Lord Dalhousie in 1856. 

Oude, now a decayed town in the province 
of that name, is said to have been the capital 
of a great kingdom twelve hundred years 
before the Christian era. It is mentioned in 
the Maha Bharrat, a famous Hindoo work 
written in Sanscrit. It is situated on the 
Goggra, nearly adjoining Fyzabad. Various 
districts tributary to Nepaul, ranges of hills, 

VOL. 1. 


and forests bound this province on the north, 
which led to the apprehension that it would 
be liable to predatory incursions when British 
authority was established. On the contrary, 
the hill-men have respected the English 
name, and the wise government of the prince 
now ruling Nepaul preserved security and 
peace in that direction. Oude is watered by 
the Ganges, the Goggra, the Goomty, and the 
Lye. The inhabitants of this province are 
probably the most manly, and best adapted 
for soldiers of any in India. It has been the 
chief recruiting ground for the Bengal army, 
and the men obtained far surpass, in average 
height, even the grenadier companies of our 
line regiments. A distinguished general 
officer, remarkable for his fine stature, ob¬ 
served on one occasion to the author of this 
History—“ In the royal army I am a large 
man, but I was a pigmy beside the Bengal 
grenadiers enlisted in the upper provinces.” 

The distracted state of Oude at all times 
within British acquaintance with it, rendered 
it the reproach of India even among native 
governments. The history of that kingdom 
for a great number of years, and even centu¬ 
ries, has been one of violence and corruption. 
On the 10th of November, 1801, extensive 
cessions of territory were made to the com¬ 
pany, yielding a revenue of thirteen and a 
half millions of Lucknow silver rupees. Some 
of the ceded districts, as Rohilcund, had been 
conquered by the nabob, with English assist¬ 
ance, not more than twenty-six years previous 
to their cession. In 1813 the revenue had 
greatly increased, being seventeen and a half 
millions of rupees: the subsequent increase 
was also considerable. 

It is remarkable that during the revolt of 
Oude, and the concentration there of the 
Bengal mutineers in 1857, Nepaul afforded 
valuable aid to the British; yet in October, 
1814, Ghaze-ad-Deen, the nabob, granted a 
loan to the British government of a crore of 
rupees (ten millions), to aid it in the war it 
was then waging with Nepaul. Finding that 
the contest with Nepaul necessitated a second 
campaign, the nabob lent a second crore* of 
rupees. One of these loans was afterwards 
redeemed by territory conquered from Nepaul 
being transferred to the nabob. 

In a work issued June, 1820, and dedicated 
to George Canning, then President of the 
Board of Control, there is the following pas¬ 
sage, which was almost prophetic, and is 
singularly pertinent to recent events. The 
context referred to the tyranny and. fiscal 
mismanagement of the nabobs, and their bad 
faith with the English government. “As 
might be expected under circumstances so 
| * A crore of rupees wa3 equal to a million sterling. 

N 




90 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. IV. 


adverse to external tranquillity among con¬ 
tumacious or oppressed zemindars, many 
gurries, or native fortifications, were levelled, 
the whole requiring the interference and 
active agency of the British military, at a 
time when their services were urgently wanted 
elsewhere. The just and fair construction of 
the terms of subsisting treaties, as referring to 
the nature and extent of the vizier’s autho¬ 
rity, did not appear to warrant any more 
effectual interposition on the part of the Bri¬ 
tish government. In construing these it is 
required, by every principle of justice, that 
the most liberal and comprehensive meaning 
should be given to such articles as are in 
favour of the party whose weakness presents 
no security for him but the good faith on 
which he relied. Much is also gained by 
escaping the chance of that extremity, which 
should force the British government to with¬ 
draw the nabob’s authority, to substitute its 
own within his territories; for such a necessity, 
although it might morally exist, could never 
be made out to the world, and the seizure of 
his possessions would be universally stigma¬ 
tised as tyrannical and rapacious, a preme¬ 
ditated usurpation, the offspring of a base 
and sordid cupidity. One emergency alone 
can be supposed capable of driving the British 
government to a conduct so repugnant to its 
wishes, which is, the discovery that the nabob 
had secretly leagued himself with their ene¬ 
mies, and with them was clandestinely practis¬ 
ing its overthrow. An extreme case of this sort 
could only occur, however, in such a state of 
absolute desperation, that the nabob thought 
the most unpromising conspiracy preferable 
to a continuation of submission. Under such 
a condition of affairs, although he might have 
no troops, he could give much trouble; for 
having a vast command of money, he might 
create great mischief by secretly furnishing 
supplies, and might involve the British govern¬ 
ment in the trouble and expense of a war, 
leaving it infinitely difficult to trace his 
having any concern in the machinations which 
led to it” 

In 1881, the annoyance experienced by the 
British government from the disturbed state 
of Oude, and the violation of treaty as to its 
government, especially in fiscal matters, was 
such that Lord W. Bentinck made peremptory 
demands upon the nabob for the reform of his 
administration, and the melioration of the 
condition of his people. This demand was 
followed by a temporary amendment on the 
part of the Oude government, but it soon 
relapsed into its old ways. In 1847, Lord 
Hardinge repeated the demands of Lord 
W. Bentinck, and threatened in two years a 
decisive interposition, if the requisitions of 


the British government were not complied 
with. It was not until 1856 that the step 
was taken which it had been predicted in the 
passage above quoted would be universally 
stigmatised—a prediction too truly fulfilled. 
As it has had so important an influence on 
the late revolt in the Bengal army, and the 
late conflicts in Oude, it is desirable here to 
give some outline of the circumstances, and 
the subsequent condition of Oude ; a more 
particular detail must be reserved for an 
appropriate page in the historical portion of 
this work. 

Taking the Blue-books as our guide,* the 
process of annexation appears to have been as 
follows :—The papers presented to the legis¬ 
lature open with a letter from Lord Dalhousie, 
Govern or-General, on July 3rd, 1855, to the 
Court of Directors, transmitting papers rela¬ 
tive to the condition of Oude, and a minute 
setting forth his propositions for the future 
government of Oude. The first enclosure 
is the minute of the governor-general of 
November 21st, 1854, to Colonel Outram, 
being instructions to the latter gentleman on 
assuming his appointment as British resident 
at the court of Lucknow. This minute was 
signed by three of the supreme council, and 
the fourth appended a minute giving it his 
cordial support. It states, “ that the govern¬ 
ment of Oude is in a state of probation, in 
which it was solemnly placed by Lord Har¬ 
dinge in 1847; ” that Lord Hardinge told 
the King of Oude in that year, that if he did 
not amend the condition of his people “within 
two years,” “ it would he the duty of the 
British government to have recourse to those 
extreme measures which, sixteen years before, 
Lord William Bentinck had declared must 
be enforced, for the protection of the people 
of Oude; ” and that this was made as a 
“ peremptory demand, by Lord Hai dinge, in 
pursuance of the treaty of 1801.” It further 
states, that the warning to the king was not 
acted upon by the government of India at 
the expiration of two years, in consequence 
of “the occurrence of successive wars, and 
an unfeigned reluctance to have recourse to 
those extreme mea'sures.” Lastly, it instructs 
Colonel Outram “ to inquire into the present 
state of Oude, with a view to determine whe¬ 
ther its affairs still continue in the same state 
in which Colonel Sleeman (the late resident) 
from time to time described them ; and whe¬ 
ther the duty imposed upon the British 
government by the treaty of 1801, a duty 
recognised by Lord William Bentinck in 
1831, and reiterated by Lord Hardinge in 
1847, would any longer admit of indulging 

* “ Papers relating to Oude,” presented to parliament 
in 1856. 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


91 


Chap. IV.] 

the ‘ reluctance ’ above referred to.” Major- 
general * Outram applied himself to the task 
committed to him with the vigour, deter¬ 
mination, and sagacity for which he is so 
remarkable; and the result of his inqui¬ 
ries may be thus summed up in his own 
words :—“ I have no hesitation in declaring 
my opinion that the duty imposed on the 
British government by the treaty of 1801 
cannot any longer admit of our honestly in¬ 
dulging the reluctance which the government 
of India has felt, heretofore, to have recourse 
to those extreme measures which alone can 
be of any real efficacy in remedying the evils 
from which the state of Oude has suffered so 
long.” His report was transmitted to Cal¬ 
cutta, on which there appeared a minute by 
Major-general Low, a member of the council, 
stating that these papers should, of course, be 
sent to the governor-general, -and that he 
“entirely occurred in the opinions” recorded 
by Major-general Outram in the above ex¬ 
tract from his despatch. 

Lord Dalhousie communicated to the go¬ 
vernment at home the inquiries and opinions 
of Major-general Outram, and the opinions 
and recommendations of the leading officials 
at Calcutta. His lordship urged upon the 
government the step, admitted that it must be 
attended by odium, but expressed lijs readi¬ 
ness to incur whatever obloquy might ensue. 
The marquis had been encouraged, in the 
audacious and unjust policy he had previously 
followed, by Sir Robert Peel, who justified in 
parliament a less strict regard to treaty, and 
a less elevated principle of honour, in dealing 
with the native princes than would have 
been tolerated in maintaining relations with 
European sovereigns and governments. Few 
statesmen were less scrupulous in resorting to 
an expert and sophistical casuistry to support 
a departure from principle, or a desertion of 
party, than Sir Robert. Lord Dalhousie 
copied him in this respect, as well as fol¬ 
lowed his general policy. The disingenuous, 
tyrannical, and dishonest government of that 
nobleman alienated the confidence of native 
princes, capitalists, and military, and sowed 
broadcast the seeds of resentment and revolt. 
The company did not thoroughly approve 
of the scheme, but the Board of Control 
favoured it, and the committee at Leadenhall 
Street threw upon the governor-general the 
responsibility which he was so willing, and 
even ambitious, to incur, as the following 
paragraph of their despatch shows :— 

It is on every account to be desired that the great 
measure which we have authorised should be carried into 


* He had been promoted to that rank during the pro¬ 
gress of his investigations. 


effect under the auspices of the nobleman rho has so 
loug, and with such eminent ability and success, adminis¬ 
tered the affairs of the British empire in India; who has 
bestowed such attentive and earnest consideration on this 
particular subject; and whose acts may carry a weight of 
authority which might, perhaps, not in the same degree 
attach to the first proceedings of a new administration. 
Entertaining full reliance on the ability and judgment of 
the Marquis of Dalhousie, with the suggestions of the 
other members of your government before him, we 
abstain from fettering his lordship’s discretion by any 
further instructions ; and feel assured that, whichever 
mode of attaining the indispensable result may be resolved 
on, the change will be carried into effect in the manner 
best calculated to avert collisions of any kind, and with 
every proper and humane consideration to all persons 
whose feelings have a just claim to be consulted. 

We are, &c., 

E. Macnaghten. 

W. II. Sykes. 

&c. &c. &c.* 

At the close of 1855 General Outram was 
ordered to assemble a large military force at 
Cawnpore, and to enter into negotiations witli 
the Oude government, “ for the purposes 
mentioned in the despatch of the honourable 
court.” On the 30th of January General 
Outram summoned the prime-minister of 
Oude to the residency at Lucknow, to inform 
him of the decision of the governor-general. 
On the 1st of February the king addressed 
“ the resident,” protesting in mild but digni¬ 
fied language against the subversion of his 
rightful authority. The resident declined all 
discussion, informing his majesty that the 
determination of his government was in¬ 
flexible. He gave the king three dags to 
decide. The army and people of Oude were 
as one man in the desire to raise the standard 
of resistance, and the sepoys of the Bengal 
army—being soon made acquainted with the 
danger to the independence of Oude, their 
native territory—heartily but secretly sympa¬ 
thised with its king and people. His majesty 
did not dare, however, to encounter the supe¬ 
rior power of the British; he disarmed his 
troops, and dismounted his guns. On the 
4th of February General Outram demanded 
that the king should sign a declaration that, 
his “ infraction of the essential engagements 
of previous treaties had been continued and 
notorious.” His majesty, giving way to 
vehement grief and indignation, refused to 
sign this condemnation of himself, and ex¬ 
pressed his determination to lay a memorial 
of his wrongs at the feet of the Queen of Great 
Britain. In 1858 he is, by his agents, en¬ 
deavouring to obtain from her majesty redress 
of the grievances of which he complains. The 
king also refused to sign a new treaty, abro¬ 
gating that of 1801, submitted to him by 
General Outram. On the 7th of February 
the general issued a proclamation, declaring 
I * Oude Blue-book, p. 23(5. 





92 


HISTORY OF-THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. IV. 


that “ the British government had assumed 
to itself the exclusive and permanent admin¬ 
istration of the territories of Oude.” From 
that moment the soldiery and people of the 
Idngdom were resolved to take the first op¬ 
portunity of re-asserting the independence 
of their country, and taking vengeance upon 
those whom they considered its oppressors. 
General Outram compelled many nobles to 
give bail .for their good behaviour, and many 
were placed under surveillance. 

In September, 1856, only seven months 
before the revolt of 1857 began, Sir Henry 
Lawrence expressed himself in clear and 
decided terms as to the condition and pros¬ 
pects of the newly-annexed country. The 
opinions and warnings of such a man are so 
valuable, as to give to the following a deep 
interest in connection with the dark and san¬ 
guinary deeds which have since been perpe¬ 
trated in Oude, and cbiefly by natives of 
Oude at Cawnpore:—“ Oude has long been 
the Alsatia of India. In that province were 
to be met, even more than at Hyderabad or 
at Lahore, the Afreedee and Durukzye of the 
Khyber, the Beloochee of Khelat, and the 
Wuzeeree of the Sulimani range. There also 
congregated the idle, the dissipated, and the 
disaffected of every native state in India. 
Added to these were many deserters from 
the British ranks, yet the contingent of 
twelve thousand men has been almost wholly 
filled from the old Oude army. The reason 
assigned for the different line of conduct is 
that the Punjaub was conquered, but that 
Oude fell in peace. In this there is a fallacy, 
little understood, but not the less a fallacy. 
Proportionally, few of the instigators of oppo¬ 
sition at Lahore and in the Sikh army were 
Sikhs; they were British subjects—many of 
them British deserters. The general feeling 
of the Sikhs was hardly hostile. Many of 
the Sikhs were friendly—decidedly so, com¬ 
pared with the Hindoostanees in the Punjaub 
service. The King of Oude employed fifty- 
nine thousand soldiers ; his chiefs and officials 
at least as many more. Of these vast num¬ 
bers, one-fifth at the utmost have found em¬ 
ployment in the police and irregular corps. 
Yet these levies, with half a dozen regular 
corps, form the whole army of occupation. 
This seems a grave mistake. Why not, at 
least, make a change ? Why not move some 
of the Punjaub regiments that have been keep¬ 
ing constant watch and ward on the Indus for 
seven years to Oude, and send some of the 
king’s people to the north-west ? The king 
had some eight thousand artillery; of these 
about five hundred may have obtained em¬ 
ployment, the rest, young and old, are on 
the world. Surely, if there was danger in 


employing Sikhs in 1849, it would be well to 
remove some portion of the Oude levies from 
Oude, where such materials for mischief still 
remain. In the province are two hundred 
and forty-six forts, besides innumerable 
smaller strongholds, many of them sheltered 
within thick jungles. In these forts are four 
hundred and seventy-six guns. Forts and 
guns should all be in the hands of govern¬ 
ment, or the forts should be razed. Many a 
foolish fellow has been urged on to his own 
ruin by the possession of a paltry fort; and 
many a paltry mud fort has repulsed British 
troops. The eighty or ninety thousand dis¬ 
banded Oude soldiers are the brethren of the 

British sepoys.A paragraph in the 

Delhi Gazette, announcing that the Oude 
authorities are disposed to dispense with the 
service of the regular regiments for Lucknow, 
tempts a few further words of caution, though 
we do not altogether credit the newspaper 
report. The earliest days of annexation are 
not the safest. Be liberal, considerate, and 
merciful, but be prompt,'watchful, and even 
quietly suspicious. Let not the loose cha¬ 
racters floating on the surface of society, 
especially such a society as Lucknow, be too 
far tempted or trusted. Wellington’s maxim 
of * keeping the troops out of sight ’ answered 
for England; it will not answer for India. 
There must be trusty bayonets within sight 
of the understandings, if not of the eyes, of 
Indian subjects before they will pay willing 
obedience or any revenue. Of late years the 
wheels of government have been moving very 
fast; many native prejudices have been 
shocked. Natives are now threatened with 
the abolition of polygamy. It would not be 
difficult to twist this into an attack on Hin- 
dooism. At any rate, the faster the vessel 
glides the more need of caution—of watching 
the weather, the rocks, and the shoals. 

“ ‘ Felix quern faciunt aliena pericida cautum.’ ” 

The advent of the greased cartridge irritation 
thus found the army of Bengal already disaf¬ 
fected, and precipitated revolt. 

Fyzabad (beautiful residence) was the 
capital of Oude during the last centtiry, until 
1775, when Lucknow was promoted to that 
honour. The situation of Fyzabad is favour¬ 
able for pleasure and sanitary advantages, 
having a good site upon the south bank of 
the Goggra. The town is large and popu¬ 
lous, but few Europeans reside or visit there. 
The ruins of the palace of Shujah-ad-Dowlah 
yet remain; there are also ruins of a fortress 
which was of considerable strength. The 
attention of Europeans has been much directed 
to this city, from the circumstance of its 
having been the residence of the once cele- 




Chap. IV.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


93 


brated Bhow Begum, widow of Shujah-ad- 
Dowlah, and mother of Asuph-ad-Dowlah. 
When the Marquis of Wellesley was gover¬ 
nor-general, the begum announced to him her 
intention to leave to the British government 
the whole of her property, and to make the 
government also her sole executor. No doubt 
existed of her right to do so, but her purpose 
becoming known to the court and people of 
Oude, great astonishment and disapprobation 
was excited. The English government, un¬ 
willing to take advantage of her highness’s 
favourable intentions, endeavoured to induce 
her to leave the property to the royal house 
of Oude, under certain stipulations, alike 
beneficial to it and to the country; but the 
importunities and representations made by 
the governor-general and his agents failed 
for a long time to produce the effects desired. 
Ultimately the royal lady relented towards 
her family in some degree, but displayed her 
partiality for the British government, or her 
resentment against her own connexions, by 
leaving a large portion of her property to the 
former. The Bhow Begum died in 1815, and 
during the following year the resident at 
Lucknow proceeded to Fyzabad, and carried 
into effect the will of thq deceased. Her 
wealth was passing great-—in money, land, 
jewels, shawls, robes, cattle, and other pro¬ 
perty. A large sum was set apart to erect 
and preserve a suitable mausoleum, and for 
religious offerings ; the nabob inherited about 
a qiiarter of a million sterling per annum, the 
British government receiving about three- 
quarters of a million sterling, which was dis¬ 
tributed in Oude on political grounds, pen¬ 
sions being given to various members of 
the royal family. 

Lucknow has obtained celebrity by the 
resistance of its heroic garrison during the 
revolt of 1857, and by the successful and 
chivalrous efforts of Generals Outram, Have¬ 
lock, and Campbell to relieve it. The town 
is situated on the south side of the Goomty, 
which is navigable for boats of considerable 
size even during the dry season. The 
Goomty falls into the Ganges between Be¬ 
nares and Ghazepore. It is in latitude 
26° 51' north, and longitude 80° 50' east, 
and is about six hundred and fifty miles from 
Calcutta. The native portion of the city lies 
low, and the streets are filthy and narrow. 
The European portion is elegant and pictu¬ 
resque, villas after the English fashion being 
numerous. The architecture is striking. The 
mosques and mausolea are built in a decora¬ 
tive style, and have gilded roofs. The Imaum 
Barra and Roumi Durwaz are the two chief 
public edifices. Of the Imaum Barra the fol¬ 
lowing description has been given :—“ This 


grand mosque consists of two courts rising with 
a steep ascent, one above the other. It con¬ 
tains besides the mosque a college for instruc¬ 
tion in Mussulman law, apartments for the 
religious establishment maintained there, and 
a noble gallery, in the midst of which, under 
a brilliant tabernacle of silver, cut-glass, and 
precious stones, lie buried the remains of its 
founder Asuph-ad-Dowlah. The whole is in 
a very noble style of Eastern Gothic, and is 
remarkable for richness and variety, as well 
as for the proportions and general good taste 
of its principal features.” * The tomb of 
Sandut Ali is very magnificent. When the 
city is seen at a distance, domes and minarets 
gleam in the bright clear sun, producing an 
aspect of much splendour. The Bombay 
Gazette represents Lucknow as bearing in its 
situation and its salient points a strong resem¬ 
blance to Delhi —“ As Delhi is bounded on 
one side by the Jumna, so Lucknow is bounded 
by the Goomty; and the wall of Delhi is re - 
presented sufficiently for our purpose by a 
canal which skirts the opposite side of Luck¬ 
now. The palace at Delhi and the fort of 
Selimghur are in the position of the residency 
and the Muchee Bawan at Lucknow. In 
that division of Lucknow which is represented 
at Delhi by that which lies between the palace 
and the Jumna Musjid on one side, and the 
Delhi, Turcoman, and Ajmeer gates on the 
other, are a number of extensive buildings, 
occupying probably large walled enclosures— 
the Secunderbagh, Motee Mahal, the barracks, 
mess-house, &c. Opposite these, on the outer 
side of the canal, are the Dilkhoosha Park 
and Palace, and La Martiniere, a large school 
for Christian children, maintained on funds 
bequeathed by General Claude Martin. This 
school is situate at the junction of the canal 
above-mentioned with the Goomty, and the 
Dilkhoosha adjoins it. The Alumbagh, so 
often mentioned lately, stands in relation to 
Lucknow topographically much as the Flag¬ 
staff Tower does to Dehi, and about two miles 
from the bridge over the canal which leads 
into the city, and which at Delhi would be 
the Cashmere gate. The residency lies due 
north from the Alumbagh, and the positions 
which we have mentioned are to the east¬ 
ward of the residency, occupying a suburban 
district between the Goomty and the canal, 
about two miles in length, and varying in 
breadth from a mile to a mile and a half. 
Secunderbagh is the furthest and most east¬ 
ward end from the residency. Then come 
the barracks and mess-house, and then the 
Motee Mahal (Pearl Palace), which is close 
upon the bank of the Goomty, and a few 
hundred yards from the residency.” 

* Captain Stocqueler. 




94 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. IV. 


Agra is a considerable province of North¬ 
western India. It is bounded by Delhi on 
the north, on the south by Malwa, on the 
east by Oude and Allahabad, and on the west 
by Ajmeer. It is generally flat, and where 
a’rigated it is fertile; there are, however, 
few rivers to confer that advantage. Indigo, 
sugar, and cotton, are the crops best adapted 
to it; these are produced prolifically in the 
Doab. The Ganges, Chambul, and Jumna, 
afford the chief supplies of water to the pro¬ 
vince. Good horses are bred in several di¬ 
stricts. Elephants, tigers, bears, buffaloes, 
and rhinoceroses, are numerous in the places 
best suited to their habits. There is also a 
great variety of birds, some of which are 
delicious eating. The inhabitants are well 
formed and handsome, generally Hindoos, 
although the Mohammedans also are nume¬ 
rous. In the district of Agra stands the city 
of Agra, the capital not only of the province, 
but of North-western India, the residence of 
the lieutenant-governor. It was once the 
most splendid of all the Indian cities, and now 
exhibits the most magnificent ruins; it was 
taken by the British in the war with the 
Mahrattas in 1803. It stands on the right 
bank of the Jumna, a branch of the Ganges, 
one hundred miles south by east of Delhi, 
seven hundred from Calcutta, six hundred 
and forty from Bombay, and nine hundred 
and eighty from Madras. The houses are 
built like those of Benares, in several stories, 
and are sometimes raised to a great eleva¬ 
tion. The fort is of large dimensions, and 
very strong, built of red stone, possessing the 
colour and hardness of jasper, dug from the 
quarries of Futtehpore. It has a ditch of 
great depth, and a double rampart, the inner 
one being of enormous height, with bastions 
at regular distances. 

The Taj Mehal is erected near the city, 
and is esteemed by many to be the most gor¬ 
geous monument in Hindoostan. The Mogul 
emperor, Shah Jehan, erected it in commemo¬ 
ration of his empress, Noor Jehan, “the light 
of the world.” According to Mohammedan 
accounts she was supremely beautiful, and 
had great power over her lord; she requested 
that he would build a tomb which would 
perpetuate her fame, and this great monu¬ 
ment was the result of her command. It is 
inscribed as belonging to the Ranoo Begum, 
“ ornament of the palace.” Its cost was 
nearly three and a quarter millions sterling. 
Twenty thousand workmen were employed 
for more than twenty years in its completion. 
The architect was a Frenchman, “ Austin de 
Bordeau.” The building occupies the north 
side of a large quadrangle over the river 
Jumna. The entrance to the quadrangle ia 


through a gateway of colossal proportions, 
and great architectural beauty. The area is 
laid out in pleasant parterres, containing 
choice flowers and shrubs, the emblematic 
cypress having the chief place. The paths 
are laid down with freestone slabs, and have 
“running along the centre a basin, with a 
row of jets-d’eau in the middle from one 
extremity to the other.” The quadrangle 
measures nine hundred and sixty-four feet 
by three hundred and twenty. The mauso¬ 
leum, the terrace upon which it is placed, 
and the minarets, are all formed of the finest 
white marble, inlaid with precious stones. 
Pillars and cupolas of white marble crown 
the red stone wall which surrounds the quad¬ 
rangle. The inside of the mosque, and of 
the apartments built in the walls and erected 
upon them, are lined with white marble. The 
remains of the emperor, as well as those of 
the empress, lie within a vault beneath the 
building: the descent to this vault is by a 
flight of tastefully-constructed steps. “ Their 
remains are covered by two slabs of marble ; 
and directly over these slabs, upon the floor 
above, in the great centre room under the 
dome, stand two other slabs, or cenotaphs, of 
the same marble, exquisitely worked in mosaic. 
Upon that of the queen, amid w 7 reaths of 
flowers, are worked in black letters passages 
from the Koran. Upon the slab over the 
emperor there are none, merely a mosaic wall 
of flowers and the date of his death.” 

A few miles from Agra, at Secunda, there 
is another magnificent tomb, that of Akbar. 
“ It stands in a square area of about forty 
English acres, enclosed by an embattled wall, 
with octagonal towers at the angles, sur¬ 
mounted by open pavilions, and four very 
noble gateways of red granite, the prineipal 
of w 7 hich ip inlaid with marble, and has four 
high marble minarets. The space within is 
planted with trees and divided into green 
alleys, leading to the central building, which 
is a sort of solid pyramid, surrounded exter¬ 
nally with cloisters, galleries, and domes, 
diminishing gradually on ascending it, till it 
ends in a square platform of white marble, 
surrounded by most elaborate lattice-work of 
the same material, in the circle of which is a 
small altar-tomb, also of white marble, carved 
with a delicacy and beauty which do full jus¬ 
tice to the material and to the graceful forms of 
Arabic characters which form its chief orna¬ 
ment.” The actual place of the monarch’s 
sepulture is in a vault of white marble at the 
bottom of the building. 

The plain all around Agra, more especially 
in some directions, is marked by ruins of 
palaces, mosques, temples, and tombs, showing 
the imposing grandeur of the city of A gra in 






Ohai\ IV.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


95 


days passed away. Its present population is 
considerable, but not wbat it once was. The 
high stone bouses, the gardens, the canal, and 
the general position, must have afforded pecu¬ 
liar advantages to the revolted sepoys who 
resisted the united forces of Campbell and 
Havelock in 1857; and the way in which, 
notwithstanding these advantages'they were 
vanquished, displays one of the proudest 
triumphs of British military skill and heroism. 

Mathura, situated on the west bank of the 
Jumna, is thirty miles from Agra, and is 
remarkable, with Bundralbund in its neigh¬ 
bourhood, for the ruins of ancient idolatrous 
shrines which it contains. The vicinity is 
more especially celebrated as the scene of the 
birth and early days of Krishna, the boy-god 
of the Hindoos. Sacred monkies of a large 
species used to be fed by the priests and 
votaries — Mahhajee Scindia left a sum of 
money for that purpose; but the money is 
not forthcoming when wanted, nor are the 
monkies protected as once they were. Still, 
however, the superstition is preserved. 

Gwalior is a fortress in the district of the 
same name, in the province of Agra, situated 
on a rock about four miles in length, but 
narrow and nearly flat on the top, with sides 
almost perpendicular, from two to three hun¬ 
dred feet above the surrounding plain. The 
rampart conforms to the edge of the precipice 
all round; and the only entrance is by steps 
running up the side of the rock, defended on 
the side next the country by a wall and bas¬ 
tions. The area within is full of noble build¬ 
ings, reservoirs of water, wells, and cultivated 
land; so that it is a little district within 
itself. At the north-west foot of a mountain 
is the town, which is well built. This for¬ 
tress is considered as the Gibraltar of the 
East; but in 1780, Major Popham took it by 
an unexpected night escalade. Before it 
became subjected finally to the British, it was 
repeatedly attacked and taken. In the occu¬ 
pation of British troops it would be impreg¬ 
nable, at all events to a native army, whatever 
its force. 

Delhi is called the imperial province, the 
city of that name having been the seat of the 
Mogul empire. It is to the extreme north¬ 
west of the government of the north-west 
provinces, and is one of the most temperate 
portions of Hindoostan. The chief rivers are 
the Ganges and the Jumna, which, during 
the rainy season, inundate the country, and 
conduce to its fertility. This division is, 
however, thinly inhabited compared with the 
lower provinces. 

The chief object of interest in the province 
is the city of Delhi, famous as the capital of 
the Moguls, as the rendezvous of the revolted 


sepoys of 1857; infamous for the cruelties 
perpetrated by the revolters upon women 
and children; and finally deriving celebrity 
from the extraordinary siege, conducted to a 
successful issue by a small force of British 
troops and native soldiers under General 
Wilson, against the obstinate defence of the 
revolters. 0 ur en graving presents with fidelity 
and effect the site, architecture, and military 
position of the place. It is built in the form 
of an oblong square, is bounded on the south 
by the river Jumna, along which all the prin¬ 
cipal buildings, including the king’s palace, 
stand. It is surrounded by an old wall of 
red granite, which was erected long before 
the invention of artillery. As is common 
with eastern cities defended by walls, a largo 
portion of the enclosure is occupied by gar¬ 
dens. These run from the king’s palace to 
the Lahore gate. Modern Delhi lies to the 
east and beyond the walls, and in that direc¬ 
tion, for some miles, the ruins of the old city 
extend. It is not only the ancient capital of 
the Patan and Mogul empires — it is the 
natural capital of Hindoostan. It contains 
the grandest architecture of the East—palaces, 
tombs, mosques, and towers of unrivalled 
splendour are grouped within it. Its situa¬ 
tion for commercial and political purposes is 
eminently advantageous, and was every way 
a suitable site for a grand, imperial, and domi¬ 
nant city. On taking the census of 1846, it 
was ascertained that Delhi contained 25,611 
houses, 9945 shops, mostly one-storied, 261 
mosques, 188 temples, 1 church, 678 wells, 
and 196 schools. The total population con¬ 
sisted of 137,977 souls, of whom 69,738 were 
males, and 68,239 females. Of these 90 fami¬ 
lies, or 327 persons, were Christians; 14,768 
families, or 66,120 persons, were Moham¬ 
medans; and 19,257 families, or 71,530 per¬ 
sons, were Hindoos. In the year 1846 there 
were born 1994 males, and 1910 females. 
The marriages were 953 in number, and 
4850 deaths occurred. Of the last, 1320 
took place before the age of twelve months, 
493 between twelve months and two years, 
843 between two and twelve years, and 2194 
above that age. The census of the thirteen 
villages forming the suburbs of Delhi comes 
down to 1847: they then contained 22,302 
inhabitants—namely, of Hindoos, 709 culti * 
vators, 14,906 non-cultivators; and of Mo¬ 
hammedans, 495 cultivators, and 6192 non¬ 
cultivators. Previous to the revolt of 1857 
it was the great arsenal of the British govern¬ 
ment in India, and garrisoned by Hindoo and 
Mohammedan troops. The following brief 
but complete outline of its defensive capabili¬ 
ties, by an engineer officer,* shows the import- 
* Captaiu Lawrence. 



96 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. IV. 


•nice of the city under the British govern¬ 
ment, when the late outbreak tested that 
importance in so sanguinary a manner:— 
“ Delhi is a strongly fortified city, more 
than seven miles in extent, having a citadel, 
to be taken by escalade or by regular ap¬ 
proaches The defences are described as 
being second only to those of Mooltan, which 
cost us a long and sanguinary siege. The 
walls are built of solid masonry, of no great 
height. The ditch is narrow, and not very 
deep, and the flanking works, as frequently 
happens in oriental fortresses, do not properly 
enfilade the curtain. Martello towers, howr 
ever, exist at intervals: they are semicircular 
in form, and loopholed for musketry. Spiral 
staircases lead from the top of the walls down 
through the towers to chambers on a level 
with the ditch, and those are loopholed for 
infantry fire, most galling to an escalading 
party crossing the ditch. The bastions de¬ 
fending the curtains are also furnished with 
banquettes for riflemen; but these may be 
kept down by shelling. Fortunately the 
extent of the wall forbids the belief that the 
whole of them can be effectually manned, and 
much may be done by surprise and concen¬ 
tration that would otherwise be difficult to 
attain. Delhi was garrisoned * by the 30th, 
54th, and 74th native infantry, and a battery 
of native artillery; but that which rendered 
its possession still more important was its 
value as an arsenal. The arsenal in the iute- 
rior of the city contained nine hundred thou¬ 
sand cartridges, two complete siege trains, a 
large number of field guns, and ten thoupand 
muskets. The powder magazine had been 
long since removed, at the desire of the 
inhabitants, from the city to the cantonments 
outside Delhi, and contained not less than 
ten thousand barrels.” 

For a long time previous to the outbreak, 
the descendant of the great mogul was a 
mere puppet in the hands of the British poli¬ 
tical agents. He was a pensioner, receiv¬ 
ing from the Gompany £96,000 per an¬ 
num; he affected the parade, without the 
power, of a king. The officers of the company, 
civil and military, treated him with all the 
exterior deference due to a crowned head. 
When “ the king ” went abroad, he was atr 
tended by armed escorts, and followed by a 
crowd of retainers. All Europeans, however 
distinguished their position, uncovered as «his 
majesty passed;” while he, bearing himself 
in kingly state, remained covered, no matter 
by whom saluted, The troops presented 
arms, and the people ostentatiously showed 
reverence to the king and the court. The 
envoys or representatives of the governor- 
general, when admitted to an audience, 


approached “ the king and padishaw” with 
folded arms, the attitude of petition. Within 
the precincts of the palace, over his own 
retainers the company ooneeded to the king 
sovereign rights, but these did not extend 
farther; in the city he received the homage 
due to a king, but could claim no service or 
obedience. The members of the royal family 
were remarkable for their low intellectual capa¬ 
city, and their ungovernable passions. Of the 
three hundred princes and princesses of whom 
the royal family was composed, there were pro¬ 
bably not three of average intellectual power. 
The conduct of all these persons during the 
late revolt was atrocious beyond description. 
The men perpetrated crimes at the mention 
of which all Europeans shudder, and the 
women excited them to these deeds, although 
their own sex and helpless infants were the 
victims. Most of the male members of the 
royal family met the doom which men inflict 
upon murderers, and some of the monsters had 
no other consolation in dying than the re¬ 
membrance of the atrocities they committed 
upon the defenceless. The royal state, the 
palace, and the general grandeur of the city 
have been recently described in an English 
periodical, published in India, in terms which 
bring the whole in one general and striking 
picture to the mind. 

“ Few are aware of the remains of former 
magnificence still existing in this old imperial 
city, whose ruins extend over a larger space 
than our own metropolis, and display greater 
architectural glories than the latter would if 
reduced to a like state. A competent autho¬ 
rity has said that the former possessors of 
Delhi built like giants, and finished their 
work like jewellers. The buildings are mostly 
of a fine red granite, inlaid with tracery and 
flowers of white and coloured marbles and 
precious stones; but such a fine artistic taste 
pervades these ornaments, that they are never 
out of place, nor produce a tawdry effect, but 
constitute a fine whole, like the decorations 
of our Gothic cathedrals, grand in the ex¬ 
tended glance, yet striking in the close exa¬ 
mination by the beauty of individual parts. 
However, when we know that what is called 
Gothic architecture was the invention of the 
Spanish Arabs, and by architects educated in 
their schools carried to most parts of Europe, 
in the middle ages, we shall cease to wonder 
at the similarity of structure in buildings so 
far apart as Delhi and York Minster. The 
Jumna Musjid, or grand mosque of Delhi, is, 
in fact, one of the finest Gothic edifices in the 
world, and, except in the broad and high 
flight of steps leading to the entrance, a pic¬ 
ture of it might be taken for the cathedral front. 
This magnificent place of worship was built 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


97 


Chap. iV.] 

bv the Emperor Jehanghur, at the cost of ten 
lacs of rupees. Two minarets at the sides 
alone distinguish its structure from that of our 
own churches. These rise to a height of one 
hundred and thirty feet, constructed of marble 
and red stone, used alternately, to produce a 
finer effect. In our damp climate and 
smoky towns the beauty of this combination 
woixld soon be lost by an accumulation of 
moss and soot, but in the pure sky of India 
it is unimpaired for ever. The pillar-like 
minaret is not, however, an invariable charac¬ 
teristic of Mohammedan architecture, as in 
Morocco mosques are seen, especially those of 
an old date, with the massive square tower, 
by many imagined characteristic of Christian 
temples. In the days of Moorish science 
these were used as astronomical observatories. 
The Jumna Musjid is two hundred and sixty- 
one feet in length; the front is covered with 
mai’ble of surpassing whiteness; the cornice 
has ten compartments, which are inlaid with 
Arabic inscriptions in black stone of the same 
kind, which, from the elegant form of the 
oriental letters, produce the finest effect; the 
inner pavement is of white marble slabs, orna¬ 
mented with black borders, and is exceedingly 
beautiful; and the coolness produced by lining 
the walls and roof with white marble slabs is 
in delicious contrast to the suffocation of an 
Anglo-Indian church. But until we copy 
from the natives the principles of building 
adapted to the climate, as well as many other 
things, we must always expect to he in India 
like an unskilful rider on a headstrong horse 
—in constant fear of a fall. The pulpit is of 
marble, and the kibla is adorned with delicate 
fringe-work. The summit of the minarets 
gives a wide view over the city and sur¬ 
rounding country. Besides this fine edifice, 
there are other mosques ; but it is unnecessary 
to particularise them, further than to say they 
are all beautiful in their kind, and some show 
traces of what we call the early Norman 
school of architecture. The imperial palace, 
the pride of Delhi, and wonder of the early 
travellers, was built by Shah Jehan. It is of 
red granite, and far surpasses the Kremlin in 
magnificence, being a structure in all respects 
worthy of the governors of one of the mightiest 
and most splendid empires which the world 
has seen—that of the Indian Mohammedans. 
The entrance gate surpasses anything of the 
kind in Europe, and is so high, that a man 
can ride through it mounted on an elephant. 
But this fair outside is not all: on entering, 
the visitor proceeds down a long aisle, like 
that of a cathedral, ornamented with inscrip¬ 
tions from the Koran and flowers, all beauti¬ 
fully cut, with that delicacy and patience for 
which Eastern workmen are so famed. In 


the middle of this is an octagon court. The 
apartments are all ornamented in the same 
manner with inlaid flowers and foliage of 
precious marble. Many of the rooms are 
lined with white marble, inlaid with flowers 
and leaves of green serpentine, lapis lazuli , 
blue and red porphyry, so arranged as to give 
the appearance of natural plants creeping over 
the walls. Some of the flowers have as many 
as sixty separate pieces of shaded stone used 
in their structure, that a more natural appear¬ 
ance might be produced. The private hall of 1 
audience, where, in former times, the Great 
Mogul used to receive particular persons, and 
confer titles of nobility, is a pavilion of white 
marble, opening on one side to a large garden, 
and on tbe other to the palace. Round the 
frieze is the motto which Moore has translated 
in Lalla Rookh :— 

“ ‘ If there be an elysium on earth, 

It is this ! it is this 1 ’ 

The pillars and arches are inlaid with gold 
and carved flowers, exquisitely delicate, and 
inscriptions in the most elaborate Persian 
character. The floor is of marble, beautifully 
inlaid. The public hall of audience, where 
the shah used to sit in state to hear the com- 
plants and receive the petitions of his sub¬ 
jects, is in the outer court of his palace. 
This, like the other, is of mai’ble, but larger. 
Three sides are opened, and the fourth is 
closed by a black wall, clothed with inlaying 
and inscriptions, The throne is in the centre, 
raised ten feet from the ground, so that the 
monarch could see and be seen by any one 
who wished to address him, but who might be 
impeded by his attendants. That splendid 
peacock throne, which we have all heard of 
from our infancy, was carried off by Nadir 
Shall, and now graces the palace of Teheran. 
But still, even in its present state, that of 
Delhi is the most noble palace the world can 
boast, excelling anything which the poverty 
of a European imagination could ever pro¬ 
duce, either in ancient or modern times.” 

Since the fall of Delhi, under the besieging 
aipny of General Wilson, in 1857, great pains 
have been taken to render its future govern¬ 
ment effective, and to appoint officials of in¬ 
telligence, and likely by their force of cha¬ 
racter to awe the disaffected. 

Hurreanah is a large district of the Delhi 
province. It derives its name from its ver¬ 
dure, the word Jiurya in Hindoostanee mean¬ 
ing green. It is, however, only verdant by 
comparison with neighbourhoods of less fertile 
character, as it is not on the whole a bloom - 
ing territory. The Sultan Feroze conveyed 
by a canal the waters of the Jumna to Hissar, 
but the canal becoming choked up through 

o 


VOL. i. 



08 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


neglect, the irrigation to which it so much 
contributed was reduced, and the land fell 
away from its previous productiveness and 
cheerful aspect. A road through Hurreanah 
to the Punjaub was formerly a highway of 
traffic between Hindoostan and Cashmere, 
Candahar, Cabul, and Persia. The district 
contains extensive pasture-grounds, and for¬ 
merly it was remarkable for the haunts of 
lions in those vicinities. The lion of Upper 
India is a less formidable creature than 
the tiger of Lower India, but the former 
infests neighbourhoods where more mis¬ 
chief can be effected by his presence. 
Horses, camels, and bullocks, are reared for 
the other provinces. Previous to the influ¬ 
ence of the East India Company being estab¬ 
lished in these parts, the people were turbu¬ 
lent, and exceedingly divided by tribal and reli¬ 
gious animosities ; this was especially the case 
in the pergunnah of Rotuclc, where village 
contended against village in incessant warfare. 
Rotuck and Bhowavery are considerable towns 
in Hurreanah, but the most interesting histori¬ 
cally are Hansi and Hissar. The remains of 
the last-mentioned town are of vast extent; it 
is, indeed, difficult to define their limits. 
Hansi is situated near to Hissar, and contains 
many vestiges of ancient works and buildings. 

The district of Rotuck is chiefly remark¬ 
able for the town of Rotuck, which is situated 
within its confines. It was once a very large 
place ; it is now a city of ruins. 

The division or province of Meerut was 
formerly a part of the Delhi province. There 
are few things to characterise this division. 
It has several good towns, but none of great 
extent or numerous population. The chief 
towns are Meerut, Sirdhana, Katouli, and 
Hustinapore. 

Meerut is the capital town of the division, 
and has obtained an unenviable notoriety as 
the focus of revolt (or at all events the first 
place in which the revolt was developed) of 
the sepoy army in 1857. The town is a small 
one, but the military cantonments in its 
neighbourhood greatly increase its import¬ 
ance. They are situated north of the town, 
and, extending for two miles, afford accom¬ 
modation, it is alleged, for nearly twenty thou¬ 
sand men. The town is only thirty miles from 
Delhi, which lies south-west. The neigh¬ 
bourhood is a rich grassy plain, somewhat 
resembling the prairies of the western world. 

Sirdhana, or, as some write it, Seerdhuna, 
is situated N.N.E., of Delhi, in latitude 29° 12' 
north, and longitude 77° 31' east. This is 
also a small town. At one time it was noted 
in India as the capital of “ Somroo,” and 
afterwards of his widow, Somroo Begum. 
The real name of Somroo was Walter Reini- 


[Chae. IV. 

hard. That adventurer was a native of 
Treves. Early in life he became a French 
soldier, and took the name of Summer, which 
the natives of Hindoostan pronounced Som¬ 
roo. Having come to Bengal, he entered a 
Swiss corps in Calcutta, from which he de¬ 
serted, and fled to the upper provinces, and 
served under Sirdar Jung as a private soldier. 
Cossim Ali was then Nabob of Bengal, and 
he had a favourite, an Armenian, named 
Gregory, into whose service “Somroo” en¬ 
tered. It was by this adventurer that the 
English captives at Patna, in 1763, were 
massacred. He was unfaithful to the master 
whom he in that way unworthily served, and, 
choosing many masters, was unfaithful to 
them all. He, however, rose in the service 
of Nujuff Khan, who assigned to him the 
city, and at his death gave it over to Som- 
roo’s widow, or rather concubine, in condition 
of her maintaining a certain military force for 
the khan’s advantage. This remarkable per¬ 
son lived long, was faithful to the company, 
received from them especial marks of favour, 
and managed the territory, the administration 
of which had been committed to her, with as 
much ability as she conducted her affairs with 
the company’s government. 

Hustinapore (or Hustinanagara) is situated 
fifty miles north-east from Delhi. It is built 
on a branch of the Ganges, formerly the bed 
of that river. The place is now very small, 
but at one time it was a great city, for its 
remains are spread over a wide surface, or 
rather the vestiges of its foundations, for ant¬ 
hills cover the extensive site. 

Seharunpore is a district of the Meerut 
division. It lies between the Jumna and the 
Ganges, where they run parallel, more than 
fifty miles apart. It is not inundated, like 
other river districts, yet has, without that 
fertilising influence, been always esteemed most 
productive. The extremes of heat and cold 
are felt in this district—the summer burning 
up the verdure, the winter being cold enough 
for fires. 

Hurdwar is a town of small size but much 
bustle and activity in this district. It is also 
an emporium for a considerable extent of 
country, and was formerly much more so. 
Horses, mules, camels, tobacco, antimony, 
asafoetida, dried fruits,—such as apricots, figs, 
prunes, raisins, almonds, pistachio nuts, pome¬ 
granates, &c.,—from Cabul, Candahar, Mool- 
tan, &c., are brought to this mart. From 
Cashmere and Amritsir pattoos and dootas 
are also conveyed to this active little place. 
Here also may be seen turbans, looking- 
glasses, toys in brass and ivory, and various 
articles in metals and bone, from Jeypore ; 
shields from Rohilcund, Lucknow, and Sylliet; 



ClIAP. IV.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


99 


and rock-salt from Lahore. Half a centurv 
ago, bows and arrow from the Doab and 
Mooltan might also be seen exposed for sale 
in Hurdwar. A vast concourse of people, 
arriving by caravans, crowd the town, and 
pitch their tents in the neighbourhood, during 
the fairs. A quarter of a million of persons 
was some time ago computed as the average 
influx of dealers on the two great occasions 
of commercial assemblage. The assemblages 
of devotees are as numerous as those of the 
traders, for at this place the Ganges bursts 
out from the upland and rocky country into 
the plains of Hindoostan. Numerous bodies 
of fakeers make ostentatious professions of 
piety, and multitudes of their disciples per¬ 
form their sacred ablutions in the river. 
These congregated multitudes present an 
extremely picturesque aspect. There is 
as much variety of costume and personal 
appearance as may be seen in Tiflis or other 
frontier towns in Georgia and Imeritia, when 
the Caucasian tribes repair thither for curio¬ 
sity or commerce. The various sects wear 
colours upon their foreheads, made with 
ochre or paint, as tokens of the god they 
serve. Some of these sects never shave the 
head or heard, but allow the latter to flow 
down upon their breasts, and bind the former 
in tresses round their heads as a turban. 
The fairs at Hurdwar were formerly as cer¬ 
tainly associated with religious feuds, as an 
Irish fair is marked by a faction fight or a row. 
Many perished in these sanguinary sectarian 
disturbances. The company’s government 
has imposed regulations which effectually 
preserve the peace and promote the secure 
transaction of business. 

Allyghur is a district situated in the Doab 
of the Ganges, in about the twenty-eighth de¬ 
gree of north latitude, bounded by that river 
and the Jumna. It is well watered and fer¬ 
tile. Allyghur, the chief town of the dis¬ 
trict, is only remarkable for its very strong 
fort. 

Rohilcund is marked as a province in the 
lists given from M'Kenna in our second 
chapter, but the name of Bareilly, which is 
inserted as a district of that province, has 
been lately given to the name of the province 
itself. The territory included in Bareilly, 
Rohilcund, and the other districts connected 
with them, is, with the exception of Benares, 
the most populous in the regulation provinces 
of the Agra government; but the topogra¬ 
phical and social peculiarities of the province 
are not so distinguished from those of the 
provinces in this government already de¬ 


scribed as to require especial notice. The 
town of Bareilly is of some importance, as 
there is a population of seventy thousand 
persons, and a strong fort. The population 
is one-third Mohammedan, a large proportion. 
The Ganges flows on the western boundary. 

As the chief disturbances during the revolt 
of 1857 took place in these provinces, the 
following general sketch of the sphere of 
revolution will be useful:—“ The scene on 
which the active operations of our Indian 
forces are now concentrated, assumes, in com¬ 
parison with the territorial proportions of the 
empire, very narrow dimensions, and admits of 
being readily brought under a comprehensive 
view. The Ganges and the Jumna Rivers 
measure in their course the entire length of 
the plains of Hindoostan. To the north-west 
of the sources of these streams lies the Punjaub, 
constituting the extreme province of the Ben¬ 
gal presidency, and at Allahabad, where the 
two rivers unite, commences a succession of 
districts terminating with Lower Bengal, in 
which insurrection has either never broken 
out, or has been successfully put down. It is 
between the two points thus definable, or, as 
may be more precisely expressed, between 
Allahabad to the south-east, and Umballah to 
the north-west, that the disturbed territories 
lie. They comprehend the central seats of 
the old Mogul power, Oude and Bengal in 
those days being governed by viceroys, and 
the Punjaub having passed into the hands of 
the Sikhs. In the usual territorial nomencla¬ 
ture of India, they are described as the north¬ 
western provinces, having become attached, as 
new districts, in the extension of our empire, 
to the already settled dominions of Bengal. 
It is in this great district that the revolt, in 
its worst and most dangerous features, has 
been raging ; and if the city of Agra be 
taken as a centre, a comparatively small cir¬ 
cuit will include all the spots at which opera¬ 
tions of immediate importance took place. 
Here the insurgents-in-arms were joined by 
all the villains and marauders representing 
the scum of an oriental population, in the fer¬ 
ment of a revolt. The chief hold of this 
murderous swarm was Delhi. There are but 
two other points at which the insurgents 
mustered in any considerable numbers— 
Bithoor and Lucknow. The former of these 
is the residency of the treacherous and cow¬ 
ardly assassin Nana Sahib, who, after his 
butchery at Cawnpore, intrenched himself 
near his own abode, with a force computed at 
twenty thousand men. The latter attracted 
the bulk of the mutineers in Oude.” 




100 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap, Y. 


CHAPTER V. 

DISTRICTS AND CITIES [Continued) —NON-REGULATION PROVINCES OF THE BENGAL AND 

NORTH-WESTERN GOVERNMENTS. 


In the second chapter lists of the territo¬ 
ries described as non-regulation provinces 
will be found. To give a minute particular- 
isation of their topographical character, re¬ 
sources, and climates, would demand larger 
space than the extent of this work allows, but 
a general sketch may be supplied sufficient to 
interest the reader, and increase his informa¬ 
tion concerning the vast regions which are 
more or less subjected to the control of 
Britain. 

Amongst the provinces now 7 under consi¬ 
deration the Punjaub deserves a prominent 
place. The whole country extending from 
the north-western frontier to the borders of 
Affghanistan and Thibet is comprehended 
under this general name. The capital is 
Lahore. Loodiana, Umritsir, Peshawur, and 
other large cities, surrounded by flourishing 
districts, are also centres of extensive influ¬ 
ence, having all the importance of capitals in 
their respective regions. Upon the final con¬ 
quest of the Sikhs, the Punjaub was settled 
as a separate government subsidiary to Ben¬ 
gal, and under the administration of Sir 
Henry and Sir John Lawrence it has attained 
to very great prosperity. So ably has the 
distinguished man last named maintained the 
authority of his government, that during the 
fearful revolt of 1857, which extended to his 
territories, he v 7 as enabled to quell the mutiny 
of the insurgent sepoys with promptitude, 
preserve the loyalty of the people, and even 
organise auxiliary forces for the re-establish¬ 
ment of order in the north-western provinces. 

The Punjaub is divided for purposes of 
government and revenue into divisions and 
districts, which are as follow:— 

Lahore Division. —Gordaspore; Umritsir; Sealkote; 

Goojranwalla; Lahore. 

Mooltan Division. —Jhung; Googaira; Mooltan. 

Leta Division. —Kanghur; Dera Ghazee Khan; Dera 

Ismail Khan; Leia. 

Jhelum Division. —Shahpore; Gujerat; Jhelum; Rawul 

Pindee. 

Peshawur Division. —Huzara; Peshawur; Kohat. 

The general reports upon the administration 
of the Punjaub, especially for the years 1849-51, 
being the two first years after annexation, 
furnish a mass of intelligence concerning the 
country, which proves the value of the con¬ 
quest, and the possibility, by good govern¬ 
ment, of bringing the whole British territory 
of India to a condition of agricultural, com¬ 


mercial, and fiscal wealth, such as affords the 
brightest hope. The following document 
shows that this is the view taken by the 
directors of the company: the summary it 
contains of the great effects' produced by the 
skilful administration of Sir Henry Lawrence, 
and the prospects, since partly realised, of 
prosperity to the territory, is so precise and 
comprehensive, that it will much abbreviate 
pur review of the condition of this province. 

The Court of Directors of the East India Company to the 
Governor- General of India in Council. 

Political Department , 2 bth October, 1853. 

1. Your letter in the foreign department, dated 2nd 
July, 1853, transmits to us a general report on the 
administration of the Punjaub, nominally for the years 
1849-50 and 1850-51 (being the first two years after the 
annexation of the province to the British dominions), but 
bringing down all the main results to the close of the 
third year. 

2. The various divisions of the report, and of its enclo¬ 
sures, will be taken into special consideration in the seve¬ 
ral departments to which they relate. We will not, how¬ 
ever, delay to express to you the high satisfaction with 
which we have read this record of a wise and eminently 
successful administration. 

3. In the short period which has elapsed since the 
PuDjaub became a part of the British dominions, results 
have been achieved such as could scarcely have been hoped 
for as the reward of many years of well-directed exertions. 
The formidable army which it had required so many bat¬ 
tles to subdue has been quietly disbanded, and the turbu¬ 
lent soldiery have settled to industrious pursuits. Peace 
and security reign throughout the country, and the amount 
of crime is as small as in our best administered territories. 
Justice has been made accessible, without costly formali¬ 
ties, to the whole population. Industry and commerce 
have been set free. A great mass of oppressive and bur¬ 
densome taxation has been abolished. Money rents have 
been substituted for payments in kind, and a settlement of 
the land revenue has been .completed in nearly the whole 
country, at a considerable reduction on the former amount. 
In the settlement the best lights of recent experience have 
been turned to the utmost account, and the various errors 
committed in a more imperfect state of our knowledge of 
India have been carefully avoided. Cultivation has already 
largely increased. Notwithstanding the great sacrifices of 
revenue, there was a surplus, after defraying the civil and 
the local military expenses, of fifty-two lacs in the first, 
and sixty-four and a half lacs in the second year after 
annexation. During the next ten years the construction 
of the Baree Doab canal and its branches, and of the great 
net-work of roads already in rapid progress, will absorb 
the greater part of the surplus; but even during this 
interval, according to the board’s estimate, a balance will 
be left of more than double the amount of the cost of two 
corps, at which the governor-general computes the aug¬ 
mentation of the general military expenses of India due to 
the acquisition of the Punjaub. After the important works 
in question are completed, the board of administration, 
apparently on sound data, calculates on a permanent sur¬ 
plus of fifty lacs per annum applicable to general pimposes. 






Chap. V.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


101 


4. Results like these reflect the highest honour on the 
administration of your lordship in council, and on the 
system of Indian government generally. It is a source of 
just pride to us that our services, civil and military, should 
have afforded men capable, in so short a time, of carrying 
into full effect such a series of enlightened and beneficent 
measures. The executive functionaries in the subordinate 
ranks have proved themselves worthy of the honourable 
career which awaits them. The members of the hoard of 
administration, Sir Henry Lawrence, Mr. John Lawrence, 
Mr. Mansell, and Mr. Montgomery, have entitled them¬ 
selves to be placed in the foremost rank of Indian admi¬ 
nistrators. 

5. We approve your intention of printing and publish¬ 
ing the report for general information, and, as we shall 
take the same course in this country, it will be unneces¬ 
sary for you to send us any copies. 

We are, &c., 

R. Ellice. 

J. Oliphant. 

&c. &c. 

The Punjaub proper is distinguished from 
the Cis and Trans-Sutlej states. The first of 
the three departments in this classification 
comprises that portion of Runjeet Singh’s 
country not included in the two latter. The 
Cis-Sutlej is that portion of the country 
hearing the general name of Punjaub, which 
formed the borders of the Sikh state—con¬ 
quests made by the wild and predatory 
horsemen of the Khalsa army. The Trans - 
Sutlej is comprised in the Jullundur Doab, 
and the mountain region of Kangra. The 
entire Punjaub is in the form of a vast 
triangle, containing five doahs lying between 
the five rivers which give to the whole region 
its name. The Cis-Sutlej states comprise a 
tract of country which lies between the Bri¬ 
tish north-western frontier and the river 
Sutlej. The Trans-Sutlej states were sur¬ 
rendered to the British in 1846: they are 
comprised, as already stated, in the Jullundur 
Doab and the hill region. The former 
portion of country is situated between the 
Beas and the Sutlej : the hill country ranges 
between the Ravee and the Beas. 

The Punjaub Proper will first receive 
notice. This territory contains four out of 
the five doahs already referred to, and com¬ 
prehends the historic portions of the country; 
as Sir Henry Lawrence said, “ all those tracts 
most difficult to defend, most arduous to 
govern, and most requiring physical, social, 
and moral improvement.” In its greatest 
breadth it reaches from the seventieth to the 
seventy-fifth meridian of longitude, and in its 
greatest length from the thirty-fourth to the 
twenty-ninth parallel of north latitude. The 
apex of the triangle is found at the extreme 
south, where the five rivers mingle, the 
mighty Indus receiving the others into its 
bosom. The eastern side is washed by the 
Sutlej, and the Beas, which forms a junction 
with the Sutlej. The western side is marked 


by the Sulimanee range, and the mountains 
which extend to the valley of the Cabul 
River. In the north-west angle the base rests 
on the hills which overlook the valley of 
Peshawur and Huzzara; thence proceeding 
eastward it touches the lower boundary of the 
country allotted to Gholab Singh upon the 
conquest of the Sikhs—the region of Jummoo 
and Cashmere. The four doabs which con¬ 
stitute “the Punjaub proper” are still recog¬ 
nised by the designations which they obtained 
under the Mogul reign:—Baree Doab lies 
between the Beas and the Ravee; Rechmah 
Doab is between the Ravee and the Chenab; 
Chuj Doab is situated between the Chenab 
and the Jhelum; the Scinde Saugor Doab, 
which is also called “the Ocean of the Indus,” 
is enclosed by that river and by the Jhelum. 
The Baree Doab is the most celebrated, as 
being the home of the Sikh nation, and con¬ 
taining the three greatest cities—Lahore, 
Umritsir, and Mooltan. 

The whole of this country is most valuable 
and productive. There is a strange regularity 
of physical character in all the four doabs of 
which it is constituted. The centres of these 
doabs comprise large tracts covered with 
brushwood and jungle, inhabited by the 
aborigines of the country, an ignorant, bar¬ 
barous people, who lead a nomad life. They 
cultivate small spots around their dwellings, 
which are like oases in the desert. The water 
lies deep, but the soil is rich, and repays any 
toil expended in digging wells for irrigation. 
In these wild regions herds of fine cattle 
are nurtured: oxen, buffaloes, sheep, goats, 
camels, and horses are bred in gre§,t numbers. 
The camels of the Cabul caravans are sup¬ 
plied from these wild strips of country. From 
these woody regions all the great cities derive 
their fuel; and thence grass is obtained for 
the cavalry cantonments and the horses of 
private persons. “ Portions of it will become 
the scene of gigantic undertakings, which will 
tax the skill and resources of the state, hut 
which will, ultimately, yield an ample return 
for the outlay of capital. Indeed, the Pun¬ 
jaub could ill spare its wastes; they are 
almost as important as the cultivated tracts.” * 
This opinion, although uttered by so 
eminent a person, that any country, how¬ 
ever situated, could not spare its wastes, is 
not to be entertained; the productions of 
these wastes would, in a more scientific way, 
be produced elsewhere, or the increased 
wealth of extended and profitable cultivation 
enable the cultivators to bring from a distance 
what now occupies the place where advan¬ 
tageous culture should reign. Between these 
central strips and the rivers by which each 
* Sir Henry Lawrence. 




102 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


doab is bounded, fertile lands, amply irri¬ 
gated, spread away, teeming with the natural 
wealth of northern Ind. These lands are not 
picturesque, and but seldom undulated; but, 
like the widt prairies of the western hemi¬ 
sphere, offer boundless agricultural resources. 
The husbandmen by whom these rich plains 
are tilled, are brave, skilful, and industrious; 
a robust, hardy, self-reliant race, ready to hold 
the plough or wield the sword, as occasion 
requires. In the higher parts of the country 
innumerable rills distil their fertilising influ¬ 
ence upon the soil as they trickle from the 
mountains: about eighty miles of the upper 
part of the Punjaub contains a net-work of 
these rivulets, which, like veins in the animal 
system, spread over the whole surface. In 
the Scinde Saugor Doab, the central strip is 
but little wooded, and is a trackless, sandy 
waste. This doab is somewhat undulated, 
and therefore, notwithstanding its desert and 
salt tracts, is more picturesque. The salt 
range lies east and west from the Jhelum to 
the Indus, then, reappearing on the opposite 
bank of the latter river, extends to the Suli- 
manee hills. The veins of rock-salt in this 
region are of great value, and its produce 
much prized in India, where the prejudice 
against sea-made salt is very great, partly 
arising from the way in w 7 hich it is adulterated 
for the markets of the interior. The upper 
and lowur Scinde Saugor are wild, sterile, and 
monotonous, except where the land, breaking 
into abrupt glens, and sweeping into waves 
of unequal surface, relieves the sameness of the 
general waste. 

The population of “ the Punjaub proper ” 
is chiefly Jat. Many of them are Moham¬ 
medans in religion, but the great majority 
inherit the Sikh faith. The Gujurs are also 
numerous and nomad; they are good agri¬ 
culturists, but better shepherds. They are 
far superior to the Gujurs of Hindoostan in 
industry, integrity, and civil order. The 
Rajpoots have so often made successful pre¬ 
datory incursions, that they have, in course of 
time, become numerous : they are indif¬ 
ferent cultivators, but good soldiers. There 
are various sects of Mohammedans, of Aff- 
ghan, Persian, and Central Asia origin; but 
they are in bad reputation, and are generally 
sulky or dejected. The Pathans have, how¬ 
ever, acquired consequence: Mooltan is their 
chief residence. They are a bold, energetic, 
and persevering race. Runjeet Singh had 
much difficulty in effecting their subjugation. 
Major Edwardes found in them important 
auxiliaries against the Sikh army when before 
Mooltan; and when, during the second siege, 
General Whish conducted his operations 
against that place, it was with Pathans and 


[ Chap. Y. 

Affghans chiefly that Edwardes and Lake kept 
open the communications in the rear of the 
besieging army. Raens, Dogras, and other 
tribes less noted are scattered over the coun¬ 
try. The Raens, although not numerous as 
a whole, take up their residence in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of every great city as market - 
gardeners, and are unrivalled either in Asia 
or Europe in this department of cultivation. 
All the tribes above named furnish the sol¬ 
diers and cultivators: the merchants and 
traders are of other tribes; they are chiefly 
taken from the Khutrees. This class is 
despised by all the other races; traders and 
accountants being supposed to be effeminate 
persons. This contempt is not justified by 
facts, although some occasion for it seems to 
exist in the peaceable deportment of the 
Khutrees, who are not disposed to appeal to 
arms like their ruder brethren, on every occa¬ 
sion of difference, personal or national. This 
class has often exemplified superior courage, 
and always maintained a social status superior 
in civilization to the agricultural and soldier 
tribes. Of late years the Brahmins have 
usurped many positions of importance, and 
increased the natural hatred to their easte 
and religion. From the Chenab to the Indus 
the Hindoo race is numerous, and they are 
mostly Mohammedans. It may be seen from 
these classes into which the population is 
divided, that the elements of social antagonism 
are active and numerous. With the single 
exception of the Sikhs, it is remarkable that 
the Hindoo races, whether converts to a 
foreign creed, or professors of their ancestral 
faith, consider themselves as subjects by 
nature, and born to obedience. They are 
disposed to regard each successive dynasty 
with equal favour or equal indifference; 
whereas, the pure Mussulman races, descend¬ 
ants of the Arab conquerors of Asia, retain 
much of the ferocity, bigotry, and independ¬ 
ence of ancient days. They look upon empire 
as their heritage, and consider themselves as 
foreigners settled in the land for the purpose 
of ruling it. They hate every dynasty except 
their own, and regard the British as the 
worst, because the most powerful, of usurpers* 
East of the Indus, then, the vast majority of 
the population are our natural subjects; 
beyond that river they are our natural anta¬ 
gonists. 

The climate of “ the Punjaub proper ” is 
uncertain, but much more temperate than that 
of Hindoostan. Forest and fruit-trees are 
not abundant, except in the neighbourhood of 
Mooltan, where dense groves of date and 
palm are picturesque to the eye, and bene¬ 
ficial to the people. 

Under the Sikh administration, before the 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


103 


Chap. V.~] 

British conquest, the state of the country as 
to the repression of crime, or the redress of 
wrongs, was unsatisfactory. “ Written law 
there was none: still, rude justice was dealt 
out. Private property in land, the relative 
rights of landholders and cultivators, the cor¬ 
porate capacities of village communities, were 
all recognised. Under the direction of the 
local authorities, private arbitration was ex¬ 
tensively resorted to. The most difficult 
questions of real and personal property were 
adjudicated by these tribunals. The adjust¬ 
ment of affairs in a commercial emporium like 
Umritsir, required no further interposition 
than this: the arbitrators would, according 
to their respective faiths, consult the Mussul¬ 
man Shureh, or the Hindoo Shaster; the 
kazees and kanoongoes exercised, privately 
and indirectly, those functions which had 
descended to them since the imperial times. 
The former continued to ordain marriage 
ceremonies, to register last testaments, and 
attest deeds; the latter to declare recorded 
facts, and expound local customs. The maha¬ 
rajah constantly made tours through his domi¬ 
nions : he would listen to complainants during 
his rides, and he would become angered with 
any governor in whose province complaints 
were numerous. At court, also, he would 
receive individual appeals.” * 

When the French General Avitabile ob¬ 
tained influence with Runjeet Singh, he intro¬ 
duced European modes of punishment, and 
especially hanging. Previously fine, mutila¬ 
tion, or death by being blown from a cannon’s 
mouth, were the penal inflictions exclusively 
in use. When the British inflicted upon the 
Sikhs their penultimate defeat, reform under 
the influence of the Lawrences was vigorously 
carried out. The following summary of their 
efforts, and of the successes attending them, 
were given by the commissioners of the Pun- 
jaub in their report to the government 
“ The overgrown army was reduced; the 
discharged soldiers were paid up; the troops 
were paid, disciplined, and worked with regu¬ 
larity ; the finances were scrutinized; the 
arrears justly due from the tax-gatherers 
were demanded with rigour; efforts were 
made, by the enforcement of economy, to free 
the exchequer from its long accruing liabili¬ 
ties. In the fiscal department, arrangements 
were made to fix and limit both the demand 
on the people and the remuneration of the 
revenue officers. Summary settlements of 
the land revenue were made, and a liberal 
salary was allowed to the kardars. It was 
hoped that by these means the people would 
have to pay less, while the state received more. 
The multiplicity of indirect and miscellaneous 
* Blue-book. 


taxes was simplified, and the budget was so 
framed that the revenue, while restricted to a 
few fixed duties, should not be diminished. 
Here again, it was believed that a relief would 
be afforded to the people without any sacrifice 
to the state interests. Individuals of cha¬ 
racter and repute were appointed as separate 
administrators of civil and criminal justice. 
The penal code was reduced to writing, and 
rendered more severe and just, and yet more 
humane. Heinous crimes were referred to 
the council of regency, and appeals from all 
the local rulers were regularly heard. Official 
misfeasance was systematically prosecuted. 
European officers were deputed to visit the 
out-lying districts. All the chiefs, who 
might be considered to represent the intelli¬ 
gence, the honesty and influential interests of 
the country, were summoned to Lahore, for 
the purpose of framing rules and regulations 
for the future; and an assembly of fifty Sikh 
elders, heads of villages, under the guidance 
of Sirdar Lena Singh, sat for some months at 
Lahore, in the autumn of 1847, to frame a 
code of simple law for the guidance of the 
Sikh people. The resources of the kingdom 
were examined, and their development was 
studied. Plans were formed for the construc¬ 
tion of new canals, the repair of old ones, the 
re-opening of ruined wells, and the re-peopling 
of deserted villages. An engineer of rank 
and experience was appointed from the Bri¬ 
tish service; and three lacs from the reve¬ 
nue were set apart by the council for public 
improvements.” 

This glowing picture was not over coloured. 
All these improvements were attempted with 
every prospect of complete success, in conse¬ 
quence of the affairs of the Punjaub having 
been committed to competent and vigorous 
men, whose intellectual attainments and ad¬ 
ministrative talents secured feasibility of plan 
and promptitude of execution. 

These bright prospects were darkened by 
the thunder-cloud of war. The mother of 
Dhuleep Singh carried on a course of political 
intrigue such as would not have been possible 
in any other part of India. Women hold a 
higher place in the social regulations of the 
Ivhalsa than would be possible in a Moham¬ 
medan or Brahminical community. What¬ 
ever advantage the Sikh people derived from 
this in the happiness of their homesteads, 
they suffered much from it politically, for the 
chief plotters of the court, and the most 
reckless and unprincipled, were the royal 
ladies. Their capacity to comprehend the 
interests of their country, and its great poli¬ 
tical relations, wa3 small; but their aptitude 
for finesse was extraordinary, and, at last, 
their intrigues invoked the fall of their 



104 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE [Chap. V, 


country before an injured and superior power. 
The labours of the British agents in 1847 
were interrupted by the revolt of Moolraj, 
the resistance of his soldiery, and the rapid 
succession of revolts, until all the chiefs of 
note, except Gholab Singh, were in arms. 
The bolt of battle smote the whole land ; the 
avenging arms of England penetrated every 
defile and fastness from Mooltan to Peshawur; 
the power of the Khalsa perished, and the 
sceptre of Lahore w T as trodden in the dust. 
English power became ascendant without any 
intermediate accessories of rajahs, or chiefs, 
or governments; the cause of reform and 
administrative efficiency, so well begun, was 
resumed, and the genius of the Lawrences 
and Major (now Colonel) Edwardes had full 
scope in their noble counsels and operations. 
The good work has gone on, and whoever 
desires to study this interesting country, its 
people, its extraordinary advancement in 
prosperity and civilization within the last 
eight years, must compare its present con¬ 
dition with what it was when the Lawrences 
and Edwardes began their labours.* 

The frontiers of the country thus briefly 
described are extremely interesting in most 
directions. 

The district of Huzzara is in the north¬ 
west angle of the Scinde Saugor Doab. It 
consists of a hilly country; and nestled among 
the hills are valleys bright and beautiful with 
verdure and wild flowers, or covered with 
huge masses of disjected rocks, between 
which spring up a great variety of the wild 
products of hilly regions in tropical latitudes. 
Three-fifths of the whole of this district are 
rock and hill. The plain of Huzzara is the 
only vale of any extent: in this the district- 
capital, Hurreepore, is situated, and also the 
cantonment of Burookate. In the wild 
mountains which bound this district a brave 
and indomitable race have long maintained 
their independence. They set at defiance the 
Moguls; and Runjeet Singh and his Sikhs, in 
the acme of their glory, failed to subjugate 
them. Every crag and ravine was a fortress 
for freedom— 

Twas sweeter to bleed for an age at her shrine, 

Than to sleep for one moment in chains.” 

What arms could not effect, British moral 
influence accomplished. Major Abbot, having 
been placed in charge of the district before 
and subsequent to the last Sikh war, con¬ 
ciliated the gallant mountaineers by his justice 
and moderation. The country offers to its in¬ 
habitants so many means of defence against 
disciplined forces, and such facilities for 
eluding pursuit, that except under judicious 

* Indian Blue-books; Edwardes’s Year in the Punjaub. 


management the allegiance of these tribes can 
never be secured. 

Peshawur is situated to the north-west of 
Huzzara on the right bank of the Indus. It 
contains four divisions — Eusufzye, Hust- 
nuggur, Doaba, and Peshawur proper. The 
Valley of Peshawur has become almost as 
famed for its beauty as the vale of Cashmere. 
It forms the extreme western corner of the 
British empire in India. On one side only it 
is open to the plain of the Indus; it is in all 
other directions begirt by hills—the Khv- 
ber, Mohmunud, Swat, and Khuttuk. The 
Cabul River and its tributaries water the 
valley effectually, ensuring its irrigation and 
fertility. The total area is two thousand four 
hundred square miles. There is historic 
interest connected with this vale, for the great 
road over which all invaders of India have 
passed lies through it. It is thus the key of 
India. Peshawur proper is divided into two 
portions, one lying upon the right bank of' 
the Cabul River, and adjoining the Khuttuk 
and Afreedee hills; the other is a triangular 
territory not unlike in form to the whole 
Punjaub. This triangle is bounded by the 
Cabul River and the Bara River on either side, 
and the base by the Khyber hills. This is the 
loveliest and most fertile spot in the whole 
valley, and the city of Peshawur stands in- 
the midst of it. The inhabitants of Peshawur 
proper belong to mixed races, Afreedees, 
Hindoos, and certain aboriginal tribes being 
the most numerous. Previous to the last 
Sikh war Gholab Singh, under the guidance 
of Colonel G. Lawrence, effected much im¬ 
provement in the condition of the people. 
After the annexation, a strong garrison of 
more than ten thousand men occupied Pesha¬ 
wur ; but this force was gradually weakened 
after 1853, and was considerably reduced at 
the period of the mutiny in 1857. The 
peace, if not the security, of the Punjaub 
proper, depends upon the relations with the 
tribes on the Peshawur frontier. Some of 
these are held in subjection to the British, 
some in friendly alliance. To the south of 
Peshawur is Kobat, a valley thirty-five miles 
long, four miles broad. Of this and the 
surrounding neighbourhood, we select the 
following description officially given to the 
Directors of the East India Company:— 

It is important to the British government 
as connecting Peshawur with our other 
Trans-Indus possessions. Kohat is only 
approachable from Peshawur by two passes, 
both passing through the Afreedee hills; the 
shortest and most practicable is a dangerous 
defile of fourteen miles, with little water; 
the second is a more difficult and more cir¬ 
cuitous pass, held by the Jauckhel Afreedees 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


105 


ClTAP. V.] 

and oalled after their name. From the Indus 
it is also approached by two passes, that of 
Koolshalgurh, and that of Kalabagh, both 
passing through the Khuttuk hills. A like 
number connect it w 7 ith Bunnoo, the Soorduk 
pass, seven miles long, direct between Baha- 
door Kheyl and Luttummer, and the Koonk- 
i-gao, a circuitous but safer route from Nurree 
to Khurruck. The revenue is fixed at a low 
rate, as the villagers are refractory, and, if 
pressed, betake themselves to the hills. 
Those portions, however, which are held by 
the hill tribe of Khuttuks are usually quiet. 
The Khuttuks indeed have, in this neighbour¬ 
hood, been uniformly faithful and obedient, 
and their chief, Khevaja Mohammed Khan, 
who holds in farm the southern hill portion, 
deserves well of the government for various 
acts of fidelity and good service. The valley 
is famous for its salt mines, the. chief of which, 
at Bahadoor Kheyl, is guarded by a fort. At 
Kohat itself there is also a force, with a can¬ 
tonment and a fort. 

“ In continuation of the Kohat valley, 
there runs the valley of Hungoo, twenty 
miles long by two or three broad, and opens 
into the plains of Meeranzye. The latter 
plain, about nine miles square, and bounded 
on the south-west by the Khoorun River, 
scarcely twenty miles distant from where it 
emerges into the Bunnoo plain, is held by 
seven fortified villages, which, by order of 
the most noble the governor-general, have 
been taken under British protection. Each 
village is an independent commonwealth, but, 
unfortunately, the communities have ranged 
themselves under two opposing factions. 
This internal strife is fomented by the Wuzee- 
rees and other tribes, who, by interference 
and encroachments, have contrived to appro¬ 
priate some of the choicest lands in the 
valley.” 

South of Kohat lies the valley of Bunnoo, 
onlv accessible by the two passes of Soorduk 
and Koonk-i-gao. “ The lands are chiefly 
rich and fertile, intersected by the Khoorum, 
and irrigated by water-cuts. The only un¬ 
cultivated portion is the ‘ Thul,’ or pasturage 
ground, at the base of the hills. During the 
winter months the Wuzeerees pasture their 
flocks and herds, and erect patriarchal huts of 
skins with wooden frame-work. In the sum¬ 
mer months they retire to the cold mountain 
heights, taking their cattle and dwellings 
with them. This tribe formerly wrested a 
portion of the cultivated lands from the Bun- 
noochees, and have been confirmed in their 
possession. The villages are well built, and 
were once walled in, but all fortifications have 
been now dismantled. There is a substantial 
fort at Dhuleepghur, the capital, and a miii- 

vol. i. 


tary road leading to it. A cantonment has 
lately been added. Notwithstanding the ef¬ 
forts that have been made for their ameliora¬ 
tion, the people are still evil disposed and in¬ 
different to human life, though some improve¬ 
ment in their habits is certainly perceptible. 
However, much of their demoralisation is 
owing to the injudicious combination of weak¬ 
ness and severity with which the Sikhs used 
to treat them.” * In 1847 Lieutenant (now 
Colonel) Edwardes was dispatched with a 
Sikh force to collect revenue, but did not 
succeed; the next year the same officer, 
entrusted with more authority, conducted a 
similar force into the valley, and, by his con¬ 
ciliation and firmness happily blended, suc¬ 
ceeded in removing dissatisfaction, and or¬ 
ganising a revenue system. 

A series of valleys stretch away in these 
boundary regions, accessible only by passes, 
irrigated by mountain streams, and peopled 
by races exceedingly diverse in their habits 
and character, but ail robust and brave. 

Shah Nawaz Khan farmed the government 
revenue, and preserved the peace of some of 
these districts. The Sikhs, jealous of his 
attachment to the English, deposed him 
before the last Sikh war, but Major (Colonel) 
Edwardes reinstated him when the annexa¬ 


tion took place. 

The defiles of the Sulimanee range, the 
“three Tokes,” and the champaign of the 
Derajat, are wild regions, generally sterile, 
difficult of access, infested by robbers, the 
agricultural inhabitants dwelling in fortified 
villages. 

The cultivated line of the Indus, descend¬ 
ing from the hills, is exceedingly picturesque 
in some places. Dera Ghuznee Khan is a 
spot of peculiar loveliness, remarkable for its 
beautiful and prolific groves of dates. 

The whole of the Huzzara and Trans-Indus 
frontier is inhabited by tribes who have by 
their courage and depredations sustained a 
certain notoriety for ages. It would occupy 
too much space to give a minute notice of 
them. The following list comprises the chief 
tribes, and the forces which they can bring 
into the field:— 


Turnoulees . , 
Afreedees . . . 
Momunds. . . 
Khuttuks . . . 
Eusufzyes . . . 
Wuzeerees . . 
Kusranees. . . 
Belooch tribes 
Sheeranees . , 
Bhuttenees . 


6,000 

15,000 

12,000 

15,000 

30,000 

15,000 

5,000 

25,000 

10,000 

5,000 


Nearly one hundred and fifty thousand men 
could be summoned to arms against the Bri- 


* Major (now Colonel) Edwardes. 

P 













106 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. V* 


tish along the frontier hills from Peshawur 
and Huzzara to Scinde. Motives of plunder 
keep some in arms almost constantly, a rest¬ 
less and reckless disposition influences others; 
hut the chief sources of apprehension from 
the incursions of these predatory races are 
their indisposition to taxes, which they regard 
as tribute to the stranger, and an indignity ; 
and their religious fanaticism, by which their 
reluctance to pay tribute is aggravated. They 
are all Mohammedans, entirely under the in¬ 
fluence of their religious teachers, and some¬ 
times goaded almost to madness by the fana¬ 
ticism which such of their instructors as lay 
claim to extraordinary communications with 
Heaven are generally able to inspire. As a 
specimen of the faith and feeling disseminated 
among these tribes, and the more martial 
races of India and Affghanistan generally, 
the following, which was widely diffused 
during the revolt of 1857, will suffice to show 
the stimuli which these rough, brave races 
may receive whenever it is deemed necessary 
to incite them to disloyalty :— 

“ In tlie name of the merciful and compassionate God. 

After the praises of God and laudation of the Chief of 
Prophets, 

[Be it known that] this tract which the pen is inditing 
refers to waging war against the infidels. 

To fight for the Faith, and not through greedy desire 
of capturing cities. 

This is called by the people of Islam, in their religious 
code, a Jihad. 

What is told of the excellence of the Jihad in the 
Ku’ran and the traditions. 

That we are about to recount, impress it a little on 
your memory. 

God enjoins that ye, if ye be indeed of the true faith, 

Should straight prepare for this war of Islam against 
the misbelievers. 

He, on whose feet falls the dust in the ranks of war 
against the infidels. 

Has escaped hell, and is safe from penal fires. 

The Moslem, who has fought the good fight but for an 
instant, 

The garden of eternal bliss has become his due. 

O brother 1 hearken to the saying of the Prophet, 

The garden of Paradise is under the points of your 
swords. 

He that in this cause gives heartily his worldly wealth, 

God will give him seven hundred fold in the day of 
judgment. 

He that gives both his gold and the strokes of his 
sword, 

God will return him a seven thousand fold reward. 

He that with his wealth supplies arms to the Ghazi, 

To him also God will give the recompense of a com¬ 
batant in the Jihad. 

He that neither goes himself to the war nor expends 
wealth in the cause, 

God will hurl on liim chastisement—ay! even before 
his death. 

They who fall in the holy cause, though several in 
pieces, 

Die not, but live ever happy in the garden of bliss. 

Lo ! for base greed the thousands of soldiers ye behold, 

Quitting their homes, lose life without uttering a 
groan. 


Strange that ye call yourselves the followers of Islam, 

Yet with false excuses turn aside from the path of 
God. 

Ye truly have long forgotten to tread this righteous 
way: 

In the love of wives and children ye have forgotten your 
God. 

How long, wrapped up in this love, will ye slumber at 
home ? 

Tell how long will ye be safe from the clutches of 
death ? 

To-day if, of free will, ye surrender life for God, 

To-morrow ye shall revel in the Eden of bliss. 

If for God ye relinquish the pleasures of the world, 

Ye shall wrap yonrselves for ever with heavenly joys as 
with a robe. 

Is it better to die abject and wretched in your homes. 

Or to devote your lives nobly in God’s holy cause ? 

Ye will rue it if ye give not your lives for the cause. 

And say, now, how will ye show your faces to the 
Prophet ? 

There is but one condition, that ye obey your imam 
with heart and sotd ; 

Else ’twill be in vain even to draw the sword. 

He that begins to fight in the Jihad, according to the 
dictates of his own will, 

His labour is fruitless—his blood will stream in vain. 

They who know their God and Mohammed aright 

Obey from their heart the commandments of their 
leaders. 

To the people of Islam it suffices to give a summons 
thus far, 

Let us now bring this invitation to a close. 

0 God of the heavens and the earth! Lord of thy 
creatures 1 

Give now to Moslems the power of commencing the 
Jihad with great might. 

Give thine own strength, and succour thy faithful 
people, 

And fulfil the promise thou hast made of victory to 
them— 

Fulfil thy word, 0 King 1 to Islam in such wise, 

That not a word may be heard save Allah, Allah 1 ” 

In the reports made to the directors of the 
Honourable East India Company, these tribes 
are represented as incapable of combination, 
but formidable in desultory attacks. Under 
a strong religious excitement they might, 
however, act simultaneously, if not in com¬ 
bination, and a very considerable force would 
be required to resist their prowess. It is of 
the utmost importance that the city and pro¬ 
vince of Peshawur he sufficiently guarded, 
and that its administration be such as to 
secure the contentment of its inhabitants. 
According to a very old Persian work, written 
in the time of Sultan Baber, the province re¬ 
ceived its name from Mahmoud of Ghuznee. 
when he undertook his first expedition beyond 
the Indus. The former name was Bagram ; hut 
Mahmoud, dissatisfied with its site, directed a 
new town to be erected on an advanced piece 
of elevated ground. The Persian verb “to 
bring forward ” is “ pesh-awurdan,”—hence 
“ Peshawur,” or the “ advanced.” The city 
is about forty-five miles from the right hank 
of the Indus. It is in form an irregular 
oblong, and is surrounded by a brick wail 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


107 


Chap. V.] 

twenty feet in height, strengthened by round 
towers, or bastions at the angles. There is 
a large suburb called Sir Assea, which has 
its own walls and gates. The circumference 
of the city and suburbs is five thousand five 
hundred yards, and there are thirteen gates. 
Troops or city police guard these gates. 
With the exception of two elevations the 
city stands on a level space. A brook runs 
through part of the city, which Burns and 
other travellers represent as sedgy and ne¬ 
glected, but which Mr. H. G. Raverty de¬ 
scribes as crossed by bridges. The higher 
parts of the city are picturesque ; the houses 
are large and gloomy, but considering the 
site and surrounding objects, these circum¬ 
stances contribute to that effect. In conse¬ 
quence of the frequent occurrence of earth¬ 
quakes in Peshawur and its neighbourhood, 
the houses, although built of sun-burnt bricks, 
are placed in wooden frames. The Sir 
Assea is inhabited by Hindoos and Moham¬ 
medans, in equal numbers. In 1852 there 
were 7306 houses, of which 4989 belonged 
to Mohammedans, and the remaining 2317 
to Hindoos, Sikhs, and Khutrees. There 
were, besides, 725 suburban houses, occupied 
by Cashmerians and natives of the Peshawur 
valley. The population is little short of 
60,000. When the dust storms occur, and 
they are not infrequent, the houses, bazaars, 
streets, and every object in and around the 
city are covered with dust; at such times the 
gloomy appearance of the place is unpleasant 
yet striking. Most of the accounts which 
travellers have given of this city appear to 
have rested on report, for there are not at 
present any traces of the grandeur of edifices, 
which, if they had existed at the time when 
their splendour was affirmed, would be in ex¬ 
istence still. One mosque of superior archi¬ 
tecture raises its tall and tasteful minarets 
above the town; but even this has been ex¬ 
aggerated as to its architectural pretensions. 
The city is surrounded by gardens, chiefly for 
vegetables, and there are the remains of seve¬ 
ral places called gardens, which were once 
beautiful, where persons of distinction for¬ 
merly enjoyed their summer retreats. Shrines 
and tombs are also common in the neighbour¬ 
hood, and beautiful cypress-trees are gene¬ 
rally planted in their vicinity. The Balia 
Hissar is a rude fort of no great strength; 
there is a beautiful garden in connexion with 
it, which is called Shalah-i-Mah, or “the 
light of the moon.” Throughout the pro¬ 
vince there are ruins of ancient temples and 
palaces, and, according to the Greek histo¬ 
rians, cities of importance existed there in 
their early acquaintance with it. 

The produce of the province is varied. 


Cotton and corn are cultivated, but neither be¬ 
yond what is wanted for the use of the inha¬ 
bitants. The orchards bring forth good fruits, 
blit only of a few kinds, more especially pears, 
quinces, plums, peaches, pomegranates, and 
a species of sloe called amink, which grows 
in abundance. The vine flourishes ; a grape 
gleaned in June is small but of delicious fla¬ 
vour. In July rich and large-sized grapes are 
gathered; many of the branches weigh four and 
five pounds each. The vegetable gardens are 
very prolific; most of the species of vege¬ 
tables known in England and in India are 
cultivated with success. The flora of the 
province is rich. The violet, commonly 
called “the Prophet’s flower,” is to be seen 
everywhere, it is a sweet and beautiful 
flower; the daisy,also,lifts its “modest, crim¬ 
son-tipp’d” head in every field—a welcome 
sight to our soldiers. There is no other part of 
India where an Englishman can live so cheaply, 
and at the same time so comfortably, and after 
his home manner. Eggs, fowl, meat, game,, 
and river fish are in abundance. 

Having thus described the Punjaub pro¬ 
per, there remain two sections of the province 
to notice—the Cis-Sutlej, and the Trans- 
Sutlej. The Cis-Sutlej has been divided 
into five districts—namely, Ferozepore, Loo- 
diana, Umballah, Thanusar, and Simla. 

Simla consists of hill dependencies, ceded 
to the British after the Nepaulese war of 
1814. Within its circle are fifty independent 
chiefships, and nine dependent states, also 
several hill rajahs and ranas, all of whom 
have jurisdiction within their own estates. 

The town of Ferozepore is an important 
military station; it is about fifty-two miles 
S.S.E. from Lahore, the capital of the whole 
Sikh region, in latitude 30° 55' north, and 
longitude 74° 35' east. Mr. Montgomery, 
the commissioner for the Lahore division, 
contemplated, before the breaking out of the 
revolt in 1857, the establishment of pontoons 
at Ferozepore, similar to those at Agra. They 
were to be manufactured in England, and 
landed at Bombay, to be brought up the 
Indus to Mooltan and Ferozepore by steamers. 

The town of Loodiana occupies a site on 
the southern bank of a small branch of the 
Sutlej, in latitude 30° 49' north, and longitude 
75° 48' east. It is one hundred and fifteen 
miles south-east from Lahore, and. one hun¬ 
dred and seventy N.N.E. from Delhi. It is 
an important military station. W hen the 
British extended their authority to the Sutlej, 
in 1803, Lord Lake recommended the selec¬ 
tion of Loodiana as a fortified post, to provide 
against incursions from the Sikhs. The 
population is not numerous. The climate is 
remarkable for extremes of heat and cold; 



108 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. V. 


the cold season lasts four months, and is more 
severe than it is sometimes in much higher 
latitudes. 

The town of Umballah is only important 
strategically, in case of military operations ; 
it was the rendezvous of the armies collected 
by Lord Gough to prosecute the last Sikh 
war. It is situated in latitude 30° 35' north, 
and longitude 76° 19' east. 

Thanusar is a very ancient town, eighty- 
three miles north by east from the city of 
Delhi, in latitude 29° 55' north, and longitude 
76° 48' east. “Hear to this place stood the 
ancient city of Hustnapore.” * 

The Trans-Sutlej states were ceded to 
the British in 1846. The commissioners’ re¬ 
port to' the government of the India-house 
thus describes them :—“ They consist of the 
Jullundur Doab, situated between the Beas 
and the Sutlej, and the hill territory, lying 
between the Ravee and the Beas. The ex¬ 
treme north-west boundary adjoins the Jum- 
moo territory; the northern includes the 
snowy range of the Himalayas, and touches 
the limits of Ladakh and Thibet. The 
northern capital is Kangra, celebrated for a 
fortress which, during the period of Moham¬ 
medan ascendancy, was an important point in 
all political combinations. At the close of 
the Sutlej campaign, the governor of this 
stronghold, which had so long been deemed 
impregnable by all native powers, refused to 
surrender it. A force was assembled, but 
before the batteries were opened the garrison 
capitulated. In this alpine region are included 
the protected principalities of Mundi, Sookeit, 
and Cumba. In respect of physical features 
this hill tract is the finest district in the 
Punjaub; it is a succession of hills and 
valleys, many of which are overlooked by 
the snowy range. Among these valleys, the 
most fertile is that of Kangra, on the northern 
side of which the sanatorium of Dhurmsala is 
placed. It is profusely irrigated from the 
hill torrents, conducted by the husbandmen 
into countless channels. Its fertility is almost 
unrivalled. Three harvests are produced in 
the year. The rice is the finest in Upper 
India. To the north-east stretches the moun¬ 
tainous table-land of Mundi, with an Euro¬ 
pean climate. Beyond that, again, are the 
petty chiefships which adjoin the Simla hills. 
In many parts of this region there are mag¬ 
nificent forests of timber-trees; fruit-trees 
and hedgerows are everywhere abundant.” 
The people do not resemble the Trans-Indus 
population. The latter are fierce, wild, and 
predatory; the former are pure Rajpoots, 
and are honest and peaceable. They are, 
however, warlike, and during the insurrec- 
* Abul Fazel. 


tion of 1848 were reluctant to lay down 
their arms. They are industrious and skilful 
agriculturists, but scientific agriculture is yet 
in its infancy in the Trans-Sutlej states. 

The Jullundur Doab is one of the fairest 
and richest provinces in all the Punjaub. The 
plain is interspersed with towns and villages, 
where the people have many comforts, and 
display an aptitude for civilisation of a high 
order. The two chief towns of the Trans- 
Sutlej states are Hooshiarpore and Jullundur. 
Opposite Loodiana, on the other side of the 
river, is the fortress of Philoor, which was 
formerly considered the key of the Punjaub. 
It is now an ordnance store and magazine. 

There is one independent territory in this 
region— Kaporethulla. It lies along the 
Beas, towards its junction with the Sutlej. 
This petty state is all that now remains of 
the great Sikh empire, the terror of which 
prevailed from Delhi to Teheran, and the 
name of which was a spell even in the high 
quarters of British power. The population is 
of great density all over the Jullundur Doab 
—“four hundred and twenty souls to the 
square mile." * 

The Trans-Sutlej states are the most pro¬ 
fitable and most easily managed of any com¬ 
prehended in the general name of the Punjaub. 

These provinces,—the Cis-Sutlej, the Trans- 
Sutlej, and Punjaub proper,—taken as a 
whole, constitute one of the most important 
Asiatic possessions of Great Britain, as regards 
fertility, population, system of government, 
and present development of material re¬ 
sources. 

The capital of all these regions is Lahore. 
This is the military city of the Sikhs, and was, 
not many years ago, the haughty metro¬ 
polis of the Khalsa hosts. It is built upon 
the south side of the Ravee River, in latitude 
31° 36' north, and longitude 74° S' east. The 
river is in width about three hundred yards, 
but neither deep nor rapid, except during the 
periodical rains. The town has an old and 
in many respects a dilapidated look, which is 
increased by its gloomy and decayed fort. 
During the Sikh reign persons of peaceable 
habits and reputed wealth sought Umritsir in 
preference, as the changes and revolutions of 
faction at Lahore rendered it insecure. With 
all its pride and power, it was neither a 
wealthy nor respectable city. The intrigues 
and corruptions of the court injured it morally 
and commercially, impeding its prosperity, 
and distracting its social life. Its mosques, 
minarets, and mausolea, give it a peculiar in¬ 
terest. The mausoleum of Jehanghur. about 
two miles north of Lahore, is a very extensive 
and even magnificent building. The tomb of 
* Government report. 





IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


109 


Chap. V.] 

Noor Jehun Begum is rather more than half 
the dimensions of the former, and is an object 
of interest to the traveller. The travelling 
distance of Lahore from Delhi is considerably 
under four hundred miles; from Bombay it is 
a thousand, and from Calcutta at least a third 
more. The labours of Major Macgregor, the 
British agent, to improve Lahore, and to in¬ 
duce the citizens to exert themselves for the 
same object, have been energetic, intelligent, 
and successful. He has caused many of the 
streets to he widened and paved by the con¬ 
sent of the people, and at their own expense. 
The verandahs, lately of grass, and therefore 
quickly inflammable, have been displaced by 
wood verandahs, prettily carved and painted, 
as individual taste guided the decorations, 
and the streets have assumed a light and 
graceful appearance previously unknown. 
The roads leading through the city gates 
have been “metalled,” and a circular road 
round the city has been repaired and planted. 
An old palace, crumbling into ruins, near the 
Delhi gate, has, with its convenient grounds, 
been adapted to a large, and even handsome, 
marketplace. The old market-plapes have 
been enlarged and paved. A system of city 
drainage has been ably carried out. Some 
suppose that the cleanliness and beauty of 
Umritsir is now rivalled by Lahore. The 
city police, “ small, active, intelligent, and 
well armed, are an excellent detective as well 
as protective body.” The most agreeable 
feature of promise connected with Lahore is 
the public spirit of the people, who are ready 
to take up every scheme of improvement 
which the resident civil officer recommends 
for their adoption. 

Mooltan was once a vast and powerful 
country. When Abul Fazel composed the 
Institutes of Akbar, it was one of the largest 
provinces of the empire, extending to the 
frontier of Persia, and comprehended all the 
territories now designated Mooltan, Beloo- 
chistan, Spinde, Shekarpore, Sewistan, Tatta, 
and the doabs connected with Lahore. It is 
now a comparatively limited region; having 
been comprehended within the Sikh domi¬ 
nions, it is now regarded as a part of the 
Punjaub. The city of Mooltan has become 
notorious as the scene of the revolt and despe¬ 
rate resistance of Moolraj, the murder of the 
British political agents, the gallant conduct of 
Lieutenant (Colonel) Edwardes in shutting 
Moolraj up within the defences of the city, 
the treachery of Shere Singh, and the siege 
and conquest by General Whish. It is sup¬ 
posed to be the Malli of Alexander’s histo¬ 
rians. The town is not large or populous. 
The fort was very strong, and withstood the 
artillery of General Whish for a long time 


before Moolraj surrendered. What arms 
failed to accomplish, the elements subse¬ 
quently effected; for during the rainy season 
the Ohenab River, on the hanks of which the 
fortress was built, rose and swept away its 
foundations, leaving nothing hut a pile of ruins. 
Mooltan stands in latitude 30° 9' north, lon¬ 
gitude 71° 7' east. 

The moral and intellectual* condition of 
these states affords encouragement, although 
there still exist many impediments to the 
progress of the people in these respects. The 
chief characteristic of crime in the Punjaub, 
as compared with other portions of India, is 
the proportion of offences against chastity. 
The position of women, as before observed, is 
socially far higher in the Sikh nation than 
in Hindoostan. The Hindoos and Moham¬ 
medans in the Punjaub are far from willing 
to concede to females the liberty allowed by 
their compatriots; and it is to be regretted 
that the use made of this liberty is very had. 
Nowhere in India is female licentiousness to 
be seen in so great a degree as in the Pun¬ 
jaub. Peshawur is probably, in this respect, 
the most profane city in the East; and few 
towns in Europe, of a population no greater 
in number, are sunk so low in this particular 
vice. Although this subject belongs to the 
social condition of India, reserved for another 
chapter, yet, as the state of religion, and 
necessarily of morals, has already been gene¬ 
rally treated in a separate chapter, this notice 
of the moral condition of the Sikhs is here 
giyen as a particular illustration of what has 
already been laid down, as to the specific 
operations upon the heart and life of the 
people, of the different religions they profess. 

The crime of Thuggee, in the territory com¬ 
mitted to their charge, is thus noticed in the 
report of the hoard qf pommissioners for the 
Punjaub, printed for the court of directors of 
the East India Company in 1854:—“ It had 
been previously imagined that Thuggee had 
not spread west of the Sutlej; hut towards the 
close of last year the discovery of sundry 
bodies near the grand trunk road led to 
inquiry, which disclosed that Thuggee, in 
some shape or other, existed in the Punjaub 
proper. The track was instantly followed 
up, and a separate establishment was ap¬ 
pointed under the directions of Mr. H. Brere- 
ton, who was known to have a natural turn 
for detective operations; eyentually the ser¬ 
vices of Captain Sleeman were obtained. 
Much proof has been collected, and many 
criminals captured. The nature of the crime, 
and the general habits of the criminals, have 
been ascertained. The Punjauhee Thugs are 
not so dangerous as their brethren of Hip- 
doostan. The origin of the crime is of pom- 




no 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. V. 


paratively recent date. These Thugs have 
none of the supple sagacity, the insidious 
perseverance, the religious faith, the dark 
superstition, the sacred ceremonies, the pecu¬ 
liar dialect, the mysterious bond of union 
which so terribly distinguish the Indian 
Thugs. They are merely an organised body 
of highwaymen and murderers, rude, fero¬ 
cious, and desperate. They nearly all belong 
to one class of Sikhs, and that the lowest. 
The apprehension of these desperadoes has 
ensured greater security than heretofore in 
the desolate localities of the high roads, and 
has caused a decrease of violent crimes.” 

There is a marked disposition on the part 
of the Sikhs to take the law into their own 
hands when any injury is inflicted upon them. 
“ Blood for blood,” “ an eye for an eye, and 
a tooth for a tooth,” are the maxims of the 
populations that are spread over these re¬ 
gions, in whatsoever else they differ. The 
Hindoos are more ready to appeal to, or 
abide by, the tribunals, than are either the 
Mohammedans or the Sikhs. General Avi- 
tabile, the great commander and admi¬ 
nistrator of Runjeet Singh, fostered this 
revengeful spirit, or, at all events, so far 
complied with it as to dispense justice upon 
this principle. This made him popular, and 
the people still speak of him as one utterly 
stern, unpityingly severe, but unswervingly 
just; ever ready to listen to the complaint of 
soldier or peasant himself, able to discrimi¬ 
nate, fearless to decide, and prompt to 
avenge. The British functionaries, however 
able and just, have not the same powers indi¬ 
vidually, nor would they be disposed to exer¬ 
cise them in the same way. 

“ The Board of Administration for the 
Punjaub,” in their comparative tables of the 
crime committed within their jurisdiction and 
that committed in the north-western pro¬ 
vinces, prove to demonstration the superior 
moral condition of the former; but many 
formidable offences in the Sikh provinces are 
not regarded with that horror which would 
show that the heart of the people was right 
as to the maintenance of public virtue, what¬ 
ever the exceptional case of individuals or 
classes. This has been the case with refer¬ 
ence to Dacoitee, which was regarded with 
extraordinary tolerance, even by those who 
suffered from it. The determination of the 
government to extirpate it, and, by the modes 
of suppression, to mark its abhorrence of the 
offence, has not only greatly checked the 
crime, but much improved the public senti¬ 
ment. The terms in which “ the Board ” 
reports the successful war carried on against 
this crime are instructive, and give a good 
insight into the influence upon the Sikhs of 


the events of their own history as a people. 
“ In the Punjaub gang-robbery is a national 
crime, and is characteristic of the dominant 
race; it is associated with historic remem¬ 
brances and allied with rude virtues. It is 
but too often dignified with qualities which 
command some respect even for criminals in 
civilized countries. In the days when the 
Sikhs rose into power, they were the Con- 
dottieri of Northern India; the greater the 
chieftain, the greater the bandit. The violent 
seizure of property, of villages, or of territory, 
was the private and political aim of all Sikh 
chiefs, mighty, petty, or middle class, accord¬ 
ing to their several capacities. The robber 
of to-day becomes the leader of armies to¬ 
morrow. Even when their power assumed a 
distinct form, and concentrated itself under 
one head, still the Sikhs frequently practised 
that rude art by which the tribe had risen 
from obscurity to empire. When this poli¬ 
tical ascendancy suddenly passed away, when 
warriors and adherents of the conquered 
government were Avandering about unem¬ 
ployed, recourse was had to the favourite 
crime, which furnished the restless with ex¬ 
citement and the disaffected with the hope 
of revenge. The preventive and detective 
measures adopted have been already noticed. 
It was deemed necessary to treat the cap¬ 
tured robbers with exemplary severity, when 
murder or serious wounding had occurred; 
the prisoners, or at least all the ringleaders, 
were in many cases capitally sentenced; and 
even when death had not ensued, yet the fact 
of a robbery with violence having been 
committed by men armed with lethal weapons, 
was considered to warrant capital punishment. 
The rapid suppression of the crime which 
ensued on the combined measures of detective 
vigilance and judicial severity, proves the 
sad necessity which existed for stern ex¬ 
ample.” 

The crime most appalling to contemplate, 
and, at the same time, most difficult of sup¬ 
pression, prevalent among the Sikhs, is in¬ 
fanticide. The following admirable paragraph 
in a report of the administrators of the 
Punjaub opens up the philosophy of this 
offence, but unhappily does not hold out the 
hope of its speedy extinction:—“ The Punjaub 
is not free from this crime, which disgraces 
so many noble tribes in Upper India. The 
government are doubtless aware that, in the 
north-western provinces, its eradication has 
been found most difficult, and has frequently 
been the subject of grave deliberation. The 
board fear that the task will prove even more 
difficult here. This crime has become asso¬ 
ciated with- the Rajpoot name, but the Raj¬ 
poots of the Punjaub have escaped the taint. 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


Ill 


Chap. V.] 

The dreadful distinction chiefly belongs to 
the Bedees, or priestly class among the Sikhs. 
Other tribes must, however, hear a share of 
opprobrium; such as some of the Mussulman 
sects, and some subdivisions of the Khutree 
caste. Their inherent pride and the supposed 
sanctity of their order make the Bedees 
unwilling to contract alliances for their 
daughters, who are consequently doomed to 
an early death. Now, the Rajpoots of Hin- 
doostan and Central India murder their 
daughters, not because they are too proud to 
give them in marriage, but because they 
cannot afford the customary dowry and wed¬ 
ding expenses. In this case the incentive to 
the crime may he destroyed by the enactment 
of sumptuary laws, such as those now pro¬ 
posed to he established with the popular 
assent of the north-western provinces. But 
what law can be framed to touch the origin 
of Punjaub infanticide, to humble the re¬ 
morseless pride of birth, station, and fancied 
sanctity ? And yet, the hoard are persuaded 
that by carrying the people with us, by de¬ 
stroying the motives of the crime, by making 
its commission profitless and unfashionable, 
and by the gradual diffusion of morality, by 
such means alone can the vice be effectually 
put down. In our older territories, various 
preventive designs have been tried, but not 
always with good effect; such as the registry 
of births, the periodical mustering of the 
children, and general surveillance. But it 
may be doubted whether such means (unless 
most discreetly applied) are not more sus¬ 
ceptible of abuse than of advantage. The 
board will give the subject their best atten¬ 
tion, until a solution of the difficulty shall 
have been arrived at.” 

The religious condition of the whole of 
the Sikh provinces is to be deplored. No 
part of India is less provided with evangelical 
Christian instruction in any form. Mosques 
and heathen temples are supported from the 
public revenues, and even priests and teachers, 
especially superannuated persons, of all va¬ 
rieties of faith receive government main¬ 
tenance. The extent of these disbursements 
is at once serious as respects the revenue, 
and shameful as regards the Christian con¬ 
sistency of the government. The principle 
upon which this is advocated is, that it is 
politic not too soon or too suddenly to abolish 
a previously existing state of things; that, 
seeing the revenues are levied from the whole 
nation, some portion of them should be given 
back in a manner to please the people. How t - 
ever reasonable and correct this may be as 
it regards pensions for civil and military 
service, and public works, it is both unwise 
and unchristian for the government to extend 


its open patronage to every variety of super¬ 
stition and idolatry, the votaries of which 
they find ready to receive it. Grants of 
public money in consonance with public 
rights and general utility, ought not to be 
confounded with its bestowment in vain efforts 
to gratify prejudice, bigotry, and idolatry. 
That the government commits this error the 
following extract will show :— 

“The endowments [writing of a particular 
class] are both secular and religious, for the 
support of temples, mosques, places of pil¬ 
grimage and devotion, schools, village inns 
for the reception of travellers, paupers, and 
strangers, generally of a monastic character. 
These institutions are ornaments to the vil¬ 
lages ; they have some architectural preten¬ 
sion, and being embosomed in trees, are often 
the only shady spots in the neighbourhood. 
They add much to the comfort of rustic life, 
and keep alive a spirit of hospitality and piety 
among the agricultural people. The endow¬ 
ments, though occasionally reduced in amount, 
have on the whole been regarded with liber¬ 
ality, and in confirming them, the officers 
have mainly regarded the utility and efficiency 
of the institution. Such grants, when insig¬ 
nificant in amount, have been maintained, 
even though the original granter might have 
been the headman of the village. The grants 
to objects of charity or to persons of sanctity 
have frequently been paid in cash, and in such 
cases have been brought under the denomina¬ 
tion of pensions. In regard to the charitable 
grants, indeed with regard to all grants, the 
tenour of the government letter has been 
observed, and the rigour of the rules has 
been relaxed in favour of parties who, from 
‘indigence, infirmity, age, or sex,’ might be 
fitting objects of special indulgence.” 

In the above extract the board informs 
the government and the public, that in con¬ 
firming previously existing endowments, the 
officers have chiefly regarded the utility and 
efficiency of the institutions so endowed. 
They say that the institutions selected for 
“ their utility and efficiency,” are “ temples, 
mosques, places of pilgrimage, and devo¬ 
tion.” Of all the native “institutions” of 
India, “ places of pilgrimage ” are the greatest 
curse, yet they are endowed by the board of 
administration of the Punjaub as places of 
“ utility and efficiency.” These institutions, 
they further tell us, keep alive a spirit of 
“ piety ” among the agricultural people! The 
schools and village inns are represented as 
generally of “a monastic character!” No 
wonder that the British public should be dis¬ 
satisfied with a system which not only en¬ 
dows Mohammedanism and heathenism, but 
which displays the spirit of its working by 



112 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. V. 


the ostentatious commendation of heathen 
or Mohammedan monastic houses, temples, 
mosques, places of pilgrimage, &c., by the 
superior officers of the government. The 
men who sign the report which contains all 
this, and to whose talents so much that was 
really desirable was attributable, no doubt 
carried out with fidelity the policy of their 
employers. While “ persons of sanctity,” as 
the report terms the religious impostors by 
whom the different populations were so fre¬ 
quently incited to fanaticism, were petted and 
pensioned, the Christian missionary was dis¬ 
countenanced, and the native converts perse¬ 
cuted by the dominant sects, with the con¬ 
nivance of the government: these converts 
were ineligible for any civil office ! The ad¬ 
ministration of the Punjaub was in this 
respect less liberal than that of the north-west 
provinces. In a former chapter, when treat¬ 
ing of the religions of India, credit was given 
to the government and the company for the 
various encouragements which have of late 
years been afforded to the free exercise of 
Christian instrumentalities, and while govern¬ 
ment interference with the religion of the 
people was deprecated, attention was called 
to the mode in which the Church Missionary 
Society was found to extend religious educa¬ 
tion among the Santals. Since that chapter 
was written, the author has learned that the 
decrees which thus gave scope to the Church 
Missionary schools have been revoked. The 
Times Calcutta correspondent, in his letter 
dated the 23rd of November, 1857, thus 
wrote:— 

“You have recently argued that the court 
of directors are hostile to Christianity. The 
statement is impudently denied. Allow me 
to state the following fact:—On the termina¬ 
tion of the Santal campaign, the lieutenant- 
governor, finding that the complete barbarism 
of the Santals had hepome dangerous, pro¬ 
posed to civilise them. He handed them 
over to the Church Missionary Society for 
education, selecting that body because two of 
its agents had won the confidence of the 
Santals. The tribe liked the arrangement, 
and began to fill the schools. The surround¬ 
ing classes did not care, regarding Santals in 
about the light in which we regard centipedes 
or other dangerous vermin. There was po 
doubt of success, when out comes an order 
from the court disallowing the whole arrange¬ 
ment, as the development of Christianity was 
‘ contrary to their policy !•’ Well, the Santals 
have a commissioner, a man known as no 
saint, a desperate hunter, always either in the 
saddle or inquiring into the complaints of his 
subjects. He was ordered to' produce a new 
scheme. He quietly replied that he couldn’t 


and wouldn’t, and that he hoped soon to see 
the end of a ‘ policy which made us cowards 
in the eyes of men, and traitors in the eyes 
of God.’ Similar ideas are coming up from 
every corner of India.” The conduct of 
the government in that respect has, however, 
the apology of a principle—the non-endow¬ 
ment of Christian education, which may be 
justified, but the actual endowment of Mo¬ 
hammedanism and heathenism in every form 
—their worship, shrines, pilgrimages, and 
“persons of sanctity”—throughout the Pun¬ 
jaub, and the reverence ostentatiously shown to 
these endowed institutions, for their efficacy, 
utility, and adaptation to promote piety, in 
the most important public documents, is an 
indisputable offence against the religious feel¬ 
ing of Great Britain, the honour of the Chris¬ 
tian religion, and the throne of God. There 
are no features of God’s revelation more 
strongly brought out than his displeasure with 
all who participate in any way with idols, 
and especially when those who profess to 
worship him as the one only living and true 
God give countenance to idolatry in any 
manner. Yet, in face of this, the board of 
administration of the Punjaub glories in the 
support given to idolatries, and the govern¬ 
ment at Calcutta and at home impress their 
sanction upon it. flow is it possible for 
either the heathen abroad, or the masses of 
Christian people at horne, to believe that the 
governing classes are not pervaded by infi¬ 
delity, when they perceive how the plainest 
precepts of the Bible can be set aside, and 
the most daring crime perpetrated, if a 
financial or political purpose is to be gained ? 
There is no offence which the criminal re¬ 
ports of the Punjaub reveal more debasing 
and ruinous in itself, more demoralising to 
■society, and insulting and defiant to God, 
than idolatry; and there is no part of their 
report in which the board of administra¬ 
tion take more credit to themselves than 
that in which they record their attentive con¬ 
cern to maintain teachers and places of idol- 
worship! It is well, however, to see fruits 
meet for repentance. Under the administra¬ 
tion of the same John Lawrence who signed 
the Punjaub report the ban has been removed 
from entrance to official life on the part of 
native Christians, and the same R. Mont¬ 
gomery whose signature is to that report has 
put forth the following important document. 
It would, indeed, have come more gracefully 
years ago ; one cannot help now suspecting 
that it is not to the favour felt for Chris¬ 
tianity, or the impartial justice entertained 
towards the native Christians, that the change 
is to be attributed, so much as to the aroused 
feeling and opinion of the British people, and 



Chat. V.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


113 


their obvious determination to put an end 
to a state of things so disgraceful to their 
national and religious character as a people. 

The sufferings and trials which the Almighty has per¬ 
mitted to come upon his people in this land during the 
past few months, though dark and mysterious to us, will 
assuredly end in his glory. The followers of Christ will 
now, I believe, be induced to come forward and advance 
the interests of his kingdom and those of his servants. 
The system of caste can no longer be permitted to ride in 
our services. Soldiers and government servants of every 
class must be entertained for their merits, irrespective of 
creed, class, or caste. The native Christians, as a body, 
have, with rare exceptions, been set aside. I know not 
one in the Pnnjaub (to our disgrace be it said) in any 
employment under government. A proposition to employ 
them in the public service six months ago would assuredly 
have been received with coldness, and would not have 
been complied with; but a change has come, and I believe 
there are few who will not eagerly employ those native 
Christians competent to fill appointments. I understand 
that in the ranks of the army at Madras there are native 
Christians, and I have heard that some of the guns at 
Agra are at this time manned by native Christians. I 
consider 1 should be wanting in my duty at this crisis if 
I did not endeavour to secure a portion of the numerous 
appointments in the judicial department for native Chris¬ 
tians; and I shall be happy (as far as I can) to advance 
their interests equally with those of the Mohammedan 
and Hindoo candidates—their future promotion must 
depend on their own merits. I shall therefore feel 
obliged by each missionary favouring me with a list of the 
native Christians belonging to them, who, in their opinion, 
are fit for the public service. 

The following suggestions will aid the missionaries in 
classifying their men. Tor burkundages (policemen in 
the ranks) able-bodied men are required. If the candidate 
can read and write, and is generally intelligent, he is 
pretty sure to rise rapidly to the higher ranks. For 
assistants in public offices, and for higher appointments 
in the judicial and police departments generally, it is 
imperative that candidates should lead and write oordoo in 
the shikostele hand fluently, and be intelligent, ready, and 
trustworthy. Candidates must be prepared at first to 
accept the lower grade of appointments, in order that they 
may learn their duties, and qualify themselves for the 
higher posts. Arrangements can sometimes be made to 
apprentice a candidate for a few months, with a view to 
teaching him his work; but during this period the can¬ 
didate must support himself. It is suggested that no 
persons be nominated whom the missionaries do not con¬ 
sider, by their character and attainments, to have a good 
prospect of success ; better wait till a candidate qualifies 
himself fully than recommend an inferior-man. 

R. Montgomery. 

Who could ever suppose that the pen which 
panegyrised the pious utility and efficiency 
of temples, mosques, and places of pilgrim¬ 
age and devotion, and the propriety of pen¬ 
sioning “ persons of sanctity,” as the fakeers 
and other impostors were termed by him, 
would so soon describe the duties of Chris¬ 
tians and the Christian Church in India, and 
exhort “the followers of Christ” to “come 
forward and advance the interests of his king¬ 
dom and those of his servants!” If all reli¬ 
gions, Christian, Moslem, and heathen, be not 
equally useful in the esteem of some of the 
governors of Indian provinces, for the pur- 

VOl,. i. 


poses of political management, it is difficult 
to say which most meets the approbation of 
“the board of the administration of the Fun- 
jaub.” Upon the effect of the change of 
policy indicated by the paper signed by Mr. 
Montgomery, the Times Calcutta correspond¬ 
ent remarked:—“ That order was issued three 
months ago. It was received without the 
slightest animosity, and is being carried into 
effect; that is to say, Sir John Lawrence, the 
one successful pro-consul in India, has in his 
own province decreed that caste shall cease! ” 

In the chapter on the religions of* India, 
the efforts making for the religious instruc¬ 
tion of the Punjaub were described. These 
efforts have been since increased, especially 
by the British and Foreign Bible and the 
Tract Societies. 

The state of education in the territories of 
the Punjaub assigned to the government of 
the commissioners, is an important subject of 
inquiry. It appears to have been the policy 
of these gentlemen to assign funds for the 
instruction of youth in the different supersti¬ 
tions prevailing, accompanied by some in¬ 
struction in matters of utility also. The 
districts where education of any kind least 
prevails are Peshawur and Leia. The fol¬ 
lowing comparative statement of education in 
the Punjaub, and under the Agra (north-west) 
government, will give a clear idea of the defi¬ 
ciency in both cases, and their relative posi¬ 
tion in this respect:— 

. . One School to every— One Scholar to every— 

Division. Iuhabitants. Inhabitants. 

Lahore.J,783 98 . 214 85 

Jhelum .... 1,441'90.193T0 

Mooltan. 1,666 66 . 210 88 

Agra Presidency . 2,912 20 . 326T4 

The kind of education is much better in 
the Agra provinces. “ The Punjaub schools are 
of three descriptions, viz., those resorted to by 
Hindoos, Mussulmans, and Sikhs, respectively. 
At the Hindoo schools, writing and the rudi¬ 
ments of arithmetic are generally taught in 
the Hindi character ; at the Mussulman 
schools are read the Koran in Arabic, and 
the didactic and poetical works of Sadi in 
Persian (the Gulistan and Bostan); at the 
Sikh school, the Grunth, in Goormukhee, or 
the repository of the faith taught by Nanuck 
and Guroo Govind. In the Persian, Arabic, 
and Goormukhee schools, which form the 
great majority, the studies, being chiefly con¬ 
fined to sacred books written in a classical 
phraseology, unintelligible to both teacher 
and pupil, do not tend to develop the intel¬ 
lectual faculties of either. It is remarkable 
that female education is to be met with in all 
parts of the Punjaub. The girls and the 
teachers (also females) belong to all of the 
three great tribes, viz., Hindoo, Mussulman, 

Q 










114 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. V. 


and Sikh. The number is not, of course, 
large; but the existence of such an educa¬ 
tion, almost unknown in other parts of India, 
is an encouraging circumstance.” The edu¬ 
cation given in these schools is often most 
pernicious, apart even from the erroneous doc¬ 
trines of a religious nature. Morally and 
socially the education conducted by the Brah¬ 
mins and the Mussulmans is injurious to the 
pupils, and dangerous to the state. The 
pupils of Hindoo common schools become 
more bigoted than the subjects of this educa¬ 
tion would have been without it; although in 
the high schools the faith of the pupil is 
generally shaken in all religions, while his 
nationality becomes invidious and fanatical. 
In the Mohammedan schools, abhorrence of 
infidels is an essential portion of the tuition. 
No youth educated in a Mohammedan school 
can ever be loyal to any but a Mohammedan 
government; yet in the reports of ‘‘the board 
of administration,” the gentlemen already 
referred to congratulated themselves that the 
endowment for the school afforded by the 
government was, in many instances, also vir¬ 
tually an endowment for the mosque. Their 
words are—“The school-house is here, as 
elsewhere, primitive; such as a private dwel¬ 
ling, the village town-hall, the shade of a 
tree, a temporary shed, or the courtyard of a 
temple. The Mussulman schools are nearly 
all connected with the village mosque. In 
such a case, the same endowment would sup¬ 
port both institutions. It is superfluous to 
observe, that wherever any land has been 
granted in rent-free tenure for such a pur¬ 
pose, either by the state and its representa¬ 
tives, or by the proprietary community, such 
foundations have been gladly maintained by 
the board. The remuneration of the teachers 
is variable and precarious. It frequently 
consists of presents, grain and sweetmeats, 
given by the scholars and their parents; but 
occasionally the whole community subscribe 
for the support of the school, each member 
contributing so much per plough, which is 
considered to represent his means: not un- 
frequently, also, cash payments are made, 
and sometimes regular salaries are allowed. 
Cash allowances are perhaps more usual in 
the Punjaub than in Hindoostan.” Schools 
of a higher character have been instituted 
and fostered. City central schools, as in the 
Agra government, have been contemplated 
on an extensive scale, and in some instances 
instituted. At Umritsir a college of a respect¬ 
able order has been founded, where the 
learned languages of that part of Asia—such 
as Sanscrit, Persian, &c.—are taught, and 
many of the pupils learn English. Some of 
the plans recommended by the commissioners 


for higher schools of instruction and colleges 
have been carried out, and others are in 
embryo. The Punjaub population manifests 
a laudable desire for education, and at Lahore 
there is quite a rage for learning English; and 
the usual branches of English education are 
pursued by some of the noble and wealthy 
classes. 

The development of the material resources 
of the country has been advancing to the 
present time. Trees have been planted for 
shade, ornament, and the future supply of 
timber and firewood. Roads have been made 
in numerous directions: Lieutenant-colonel 
Napier, the civil engineer to the board, has 
rendered great service in this respect. Canals 
have been cut, and means of irrigation in¬ 
creased. Civic organisation has led to the 
improvement of manufactures, and the exten¬ 
sion of commerce. Practical science has 
been sedulously promoted. Dr. Jamieson 
has drawn up reports on the physical fea¬ 
tures, the products, the botany, and the 
ornithology of the Punjaub. Dr. Fleming 
and Mr. Pindar have reported upon the salt 
range, and upon the mineral resources of the 
Scinde Saugor Doab, and the upper Trans- 
Indus territories. The trigonometrical sur¬ 
vey has been carried through the dominions 
of the late Gholab Singh, and other regions. 
An agri-horticultural society has been formed 
under the patronage of the board. Sanatoria 
have been established, and schools of medical 
instruction, and colleges of civil engineers, 
have been projected. Dispensaries have 
been formed, and are most useful. Postal 
arrangements, which improve upon the old 
daks, have been completed. Bridges, police- 
stations, and other public works have rapidly 
progressed. Yet the people feel the pressure 
of taxation, and while a good feeling to their 
conquerors is increasing, they still cherish 
their nationality. Their state of mind and 
condition in these respects have been thus 
described:—“ In the other countries which 
we have conquered in India, our advent has 
overturned a dynasty, and a party of chiefs 
favourable to its power; but it has brought 
relief to the mass of the people. Here, how¬ 
ever, we have overturned not a dynasty, but 
a nationality; and our rule is as galling to 
the mass of the Sikhs and Hindoos as to the 
chiefs.” * 

It is cheering to think that the terms in 
which the following modest statement is 
made have been borne out in fact: upon 
the gentlemen who constituted the board 
rested a great responsibility, and they have, 
except in the matters to which the strictures 
made upon their policy in this chapter refer, 
* Major Lake. 



Gha.\ V ] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


115 


rendered great service to their country. 
“ The board have endeavoured to set forth 
the administration of the Punjaub, since 
annexation, in all its branches, with as much 
succinctness as might be compatible with pre¬ 
cision and perspicuity. It has been explained 
how internal peace has been preserved, and 
the frontier guarded; how the various estab¬ 
lishments of the state have been organised; 
how violent crime has been repressed, the 
penal law executed, and prison discipline 
enforced; how civil justice has been adminis¬ 
tered ; how the taxation has been fixed, and 
the revenue collected; how commerce has 
been set free, agriculture fostered, and the 
national resources developed; how plans for 
future improvement have been projected; and, 
lastly, how the finances have been managed. 
The most noble the governor-general, who 
has seen the country, and personally inspected 
the executive system, will judge whether this 
administration has fulfilled the wishes of the 
government, whether the country is richer, 
whether the people are happier and better. 
A great revolution cannot happen without 
injuring some classes. When a state falls, its 
nobility and its supporters must, to some 
extent, suffer with it; a dominant sect and 
party, ever moved by political ambition and 
religious enthusiasm, cannot return to the 
ordinary level of society, and the common 
occupations of life, without feeling some dis¬ 
content and some enmity against their power¬ 
ful but humane conquerors. But it is pro¬ 
bable that the mass of the people will advance 
in material prosperity and in moral elevation 
under the influence of British rule. The 
board are not unmindful that, in conducting 
the administration, they have had before 
them the Indian experience of many succes¬ 
sive governments, and especially the excellent 
example displayed in the north-west pro¬ 
vinces. They are not insensible of short¬ 
comings; but they will yet venture to say, 
that this retrospect of the past does inspire 
them with hope for the future.” 

The government and finance of the Pun¬ 
jaub, also its commercial condition and pro¬ 
gress, must be reserved for chapters treating 
of those matters in connection with India 
generally. 

Cashmere, and the other territory of the 
late Gholab Singh, form an interesting country 
connected with the Punjaub ; for although an 
independent state, it is immediately under the 
protection of the British government, and is 
in various ways brought into connection with 
the board of administration of the Punjaub. 
The late Runjeet Singh asserted sovereignty 
over it, and the ranee, mother of Dhuleep 
Singh, regarded it with considerable interest 


during her regency. When the Sikh domi¬ 
nion fell before the arms of Lord Gough, 
Gholab Singh was rewarded for his fidelity 
to the British government by the apportion¬ 
ment of Cashmere and the Jummoo, over 
which, during the remainder of his life, he 
reigned with great prudence and wisdom. 
This sovereignty bounds the Peshawur pro¬ 
vinces, and roads and water communication 
have been opened up, tending to connect the 
provinces in the intimacies of friendly inter¬ 
course and profitable commerce. In the 
general description given of India Cashmere 
was noticed: a further brief description is 
here appropriate. 

It is comprehended between^the thirty- 
fourth and thirty-fifth degrees of north lati¬ 
tude, and surrounded by lofty mountains. 
The Peshawur territory lies to the south, and 
Little Thibet to the north. Considerable 
pains have lately been taken to survey the 
whole country. At the last meeting of the 
Royal Geographical Society in London, at 
Burlington House, Sir Roderick Murchison, 
president, in the chair, it was announced that 
a letter had been received from Lieutenant- 
colonel Andrew Scott Waugh, surveyor- 
general of India, returning thanks for the 
society’s gold medal, which had been awarded 
him on the completion of the great trigono¬ 
metrical survey of India. Colonel Waugh 
stated that the Cashmere and Thibet surveys 
were progressing favourably, and would make 
a beautiful topographical map. Messrs. 
Montgomerie and Elliot Brownlow had fixed 
two peaks on the Karakorum, one of which is 
27,928 feet high, its distance being one hun¬ 
dred and thirty-six miles from the last stations. 
This would indicate the peak to be the third 
highest yet measured. The Cashmere series 
has twice crossed the snowy range with two 
stations each time on it. 

The valley of Cashmere is of an elliptical 
form, and widens gradually to Islamabad. At^ 
that place it is forty miles broad. It is con¬ 
tinued to the town of Lampre, there being 
little variation in the width; thence the 
mountains, by a regular inclination to the 
westward, come to a point, and separate 
Cashmere from Muzifferabad. Including the 
surrounding mountains, Cashmere may be 
estimated at one hundred and ten miles in 
length, and at its widest part sixty miles in 
width. The shape is nearly oval. The pro¬ 
vince can only be entered by passes, of which 
there are seven in number—four from the 
south, two from the north, and one from the 
west. The pass of Bember is the best, but 
that of Muzifferabad most used. Various 
roads to Hindoostan exist. 

The ancients made two divisions of this 



116 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. V. 


province—eastern and western; the former 
they called Meraje, and the latter Kamraje. 
The earliest accounts represent it as, with the 
exception of the mountains, laid under water, 
and named Suttvsir. Sutty is one of the 
names of the wife of the Hindoo deity Siva, 
and sir signifies a reservoir. When the 
country assumed a more hospitable character 
history does not inform us, but. there is still 
evidence, in the marshy character of some 
portions of the valley, that at no very remote 
period it was covered with w T ater. The valley 
is as beautiful as the character given of it, 
and its productiveness greater than reputation 
allows. The mountain scenery is sublime 
beyond the power of pen or pencil to depict, 
and the grandeur is heightened by numerous 
and voluminous cataracts, bounding from the 
huge rocks, flashing in the brilliant Eastern 
sunlight as floods and showers of diamonds. 
The water throughout the province is re¬ 
markably clear, pure, and healthful. The 
beauty of the scenery is as striking as its 
sublimity. The whole region blooms with 
flowers to a degree unknown in any other 
place upon the face of the earth. The shrubs, 
especially flowering shrubs, are infinitely 
varied, and the hues that are displayed in the 
clear light, and the odours wafted upon the 
gentle breezes that float through the valley, 
render exquisite pleasure. 

The climate is as genial as the scenery is 
rich and varied with the sublime and beau¬ 
tiful. Although the mountain tops, and far 
down the declivities, are covered with eternal 
snow, the valley revels in perpetual summer. 
It is spring-like summer, for no burning noon 
scorches within the precincts of this Eden. 
What is called the winter is simply a cooler 
season, in which man and nature are braced 
and invigorated, but severe weather in any 
form is unknown. The rude monsoons do 
not reach this gentle land; and when the re¬ 
current rains deluge India, a few soft and re¬ 
freshing showers are all that fall within the 
mountain girdle of Cashmere. The rainy 
season of Persia and Thibet affects it more, 
but beneficially; and snow is also seen at the 
same season as in those other regions, but 
the valley is so protected by the close and 
lofty circle of mountains, that it is seldom 
stricken by the snow-fall. 

Rice is much cultivated in the plain, which 
is irrigated by streams from innumerable 
mountain rivulets and cascades; but in the 
higher portions of the valley, upon the bases 
of the hills, cereal crops are grown, and yield 
uniformly abundant harvests. On the hill- 
slopes trees of every foliage flourish, almost 
all climates being attainable, according to the 
range of elevation. The fruits produced in 


Western Europe there grow in perfection 
and abundance. The best saffron in the 
world is grown in the valley, and various 
plants useful to commerce spring up indi¬ 
genous. 

The bodies of water which flow into the 
vale and mingle, forming navigable streams 
within its ellipse, in their general confluence 
form the ancient Hydaspes, now known as the 
Jhelum River, which rolls on its increasing 
volume towards Hindoostan. Among the 
picturesque waters of the valley, the Hall, a 
considerable lake, is unrivalled for beauty. 
It extends from the north-east end of the 
city of Cashmere in an oval form, the circum¬ 
ference being about six miles, and lies in the 
verdant country as a choice gem set in eme¬ 
ralds. This collection of water finds its vent 
by the current of the Jhelum. The lake is 
curiously decorated, as if by a plan of orna¬ 
ment, by little islands near its margin all 
around at certain distances from each other; 
these are covered by natural clumps of flower¬ 
ing shrubs. From the head of the lake (the 
more distant one from the city) the ground 
gradually rises for twelve miles to the 
foot of the mighty mountains. In that par¬ 
ticular place they assume forms regular or 
grotesque, presenting a strange aspect of 
variety, upon which one might gaze for ever 
without the impression of sameness. Half¬ 
way between the lake and the mountain base 
a spacious garden was laid out by one of the 
Mogul emperors. The gardens of Shalimar, 
as they are termed, ever watered by the 
munificent hand of nature, still bloom in their 
beauty beneath skies the serenest in the 
world. To gaze from the bosom of the 
placid lake, with its still bright water, upon 
the encircling verdure of the plain, and up to 
the everlasting mountains, hoary in age and 
grandeur, extending, as it were, their embrace 
to protect this paradise, is to enjoy at once 
the most soothing and elevating effects which 
natural scenery can shed upon the heart of 
man. 

The people are a fine race, both in form 
and feature. Vigorous and brave, they 
cherish a romantic attachment to their homes 
and liberties, which no governor, howevei 
powerful, can with impunity despise. 

“ Their beauteous clime and glorious land 
Freedom and nationhood demand, 

For oh ! the great God never plann’d 
For slumb’ring slaves a home so grand.” 

Besides the valley described, there are 
various others within the mountain region of 
the province of a similar character ; and each 
of these, but one in particular, is even more a 
vale of flowers than that which is alone known 
to fame for its beauty. The mountains are 



Chap. V.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


117 


believed by geologists and mineralogists to 
contain rich mineral treasures. The natives 
dig out iron of a superior quality, and in 
abundance. Among the various objects of 
beauty and curiosity with which the province 
abounds is the Ouller Lake. It is near the 
city, in an opposite direction to the Dali, and 
in its centre an island is entirely covered by 
a palace, built by Sultan Zein-ul-Abdeen. 
This lake gradually diminishes, the Jhelum 
ever craving its waters. 

The capital of the province is the city of 
Cashmere, the ancient name of which was 
Serinaghur. It is situated in latitude 33° 23' 
north, and longitude 74° 47' east. The city 
is said to contain from one hundred and fifty 
to two hundred thousand inhabitants. These 
are cooped up in one of the most miserably- 
built towns in the East, or anywhere else. 
The streets are narrow, and filthy from inade¬ 
quate drainage, and the bad habits of the 
people. Notwithstanding their dirty streets, 
they attend to personal cleanliness, and have 
beautiful ranges of covered baths along the 
banks of the Jhelum, which flows through 
the town. The houses are two and three 
stories high, strongly built of fine hard timber, 
and brick peculiarly prepared. The use of 
these materials is rendered necessary by the 
frequent shocks of earthquake felt all over the 
valley, and from which the capital has often 
severely, although not fatally, suffered. The 
roofs are flat. Notwithstanding that the 
fields, and river banks, and hill-sides, are 
covered with flowers, and everywhere is to 
be seen 

tf The fairy gem beneath the forest-tree,” 

yet the citizens of Cashmere so delight in 
them, that they turn their house-top3 into 
parterres. It is difficult for any one w T ho has 
not actually experienced it to conceive the 
effect upon the stranger as he walks or rides 
through this city of narrow lanes and pas¬ 
sages, to see the upper parts of the houses 
forming continuous flower-gardens, sending 
their rich odours down in showers, Avhile the 
passages below are filled with innumerable 
impurities, shedding abroad their stench and 
noxious influences. From this last-named 
circumstance alone the city is unhealthy; the 
country around it is salubrious. 

In the estimation of the Hindoos, all Cash- 
mere is holy land, and the most holy spot is 
Islamabad, a large town on the north side of 
the Jhelum, twenty-nine miles E.S.E. from 
the city of Cashmere, in latitude 33° 15' 
north, and longitude 75° 13' east. At this 
spot the Jhelum bursts through the narrow 
and circuitous gorges of the mountains on its 
way to the vast plains which it adorns and 


fertilises. Ausoden Bridge crosses the river 
between two mountains, in a spot of wild and 
terrific sublimity.* The religion of the Cash- 
merians is a mixture of the Brahminical and 
Mohammedan. Their language is derived from 
the Sanscrit. They claim to be the most 
ancient inhabitants of India and its neighbour¬ 
ing realms, and say that their people early 
penetrated into India, carrying with them 
religion, laws, and literature. The present 
Cashmerians give attention to all these matters 
with eager interest and successful pursuit. 
Their love of oriental belles-lettres is great. 
The Sanscrit and Persian languages are 
studied, and books of light literature are 
much prized. 

The manufacture of shawds, from the hair 
of the Thibetian goat, has made the valley 
famous in all the East, and, indeed, in all the 
world. Notice of this will be taken when 
treating upon the commerce of our Indian 
empire. The zoology and ornithology of 
Cashmere do not require particular remark. 
The shawl-goat is not a native of it; the 
material for manufacture yielded by that ani¬ 
mal is brought from Thibet to the city of 
Cashmere. The horses are small, but, like 
the little Neapolitan horses, hardy and spirited. 
The insect w r orld is very active, and consti¬ 
tutes the great drawback to life in Cashmere. 
Bugs, the persecutors of London lodging- 
houses, are far more formidable in the cities 
of Cashmere and Islamabad. Lice are a still 
more loathsome pest, being as prevalent as 
fleas in the colony of Victoria. In the open 
air the enjoyment of the beauties of nature is 
sadly interfered with by the gnats, which 
seem at times to fill the whole atmosphere, 
and are tormenters that never tire. Keptile 
life does not flourish in the province. The 
boast of Ireland, that she alone is exempt 
from poisonous creatures, is not well founded, 
for Cashmere shares with her in this un¬ 
doubted privilege. 

Ajmeer, or Rajpootana, is one of the 
non-regulation provinces connected with the 
north-west government. It is situated in the 
centre of Hindoostan, between the twenty- 
fourth and thirty-first degrees of north lati¬ 
tude. To the north it is bounded by the 
Sikh states, on the north-east by Delhi, on 
the south by Gujerat and Malwah, on the 
west by Scinde. The original length of this 
territory was three hundred and fifty miles, and 
its average breadth two hundred miles. The 
general appearance of this province is exceed¬ 
ingly cheerless ; a large portion of it is desert, 
and the soil generally sandy. The mirage is 
common in the desert. The inhabitants are 
few and wretched, and would be much more 
* Forster. 




118 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. Y 


bo, liad not Providence provided them with the 
water-melon, which grows in astonishing pro¬ 
fusion amidst the sandy wastes. In some 
parts the great desert of Ajmeer is four hun¬ 
dred miles in breadth, extending much beyond 
the limits of this province. 

The domestic animals which thrive in the 
less arid parts of this stern region are camels 
and bullocks. The wild animals which infest 
it are a squirrel-like rat, which is very nume¬ 
rous ; foxes of a very small species also breed 
fast. Antelopes are occasionally found, and 
less frequently the wild ass. This last is a 
remarkable animal; it is of the size and ap¬ 
pearance of a mule, and can trot faster than 
the fleetest horses of Hindoostan: it is called 
goork-hur by the people of the desert. Not¬ 
withstanding the sandy character of the soil, 
the ass, antelope, camel, and ox, find food ; 
and under the influence of the stimulating 
climate, and in consequence of the vast floods 
of water which in the rainy season deluge 
certain portions of it, crops of grain are raised 
for the support of man. 

The inhabitants are for the most part Jauts, 
a people who also have spread into the neigh¬ 
bouring province of the Punjaub. They are 
of low stature, very black, with repulsive fea¬ 
tures and figures; they are generally emaciated 
and dejected. In the Punjaub these Jauts 
reveal qualities of great importance ; they are 
industrious and brave, and laborious agricul¬ 
turists. Fewer in number than these are the 
Rajpoots, who are a full-sized and handsome 
race, bearing a marked resemblance to Jews, 
and having prominent aquiline noses. They 
are haughty, indolent, and inveterate opium- 
eaters. The best portion of the province is 
in their hands. In the Punjaub these Raj¬ 
poots are brave and active, and clever agri¬ 
culturists, very unlike the Rhatore Rajpoots, 
in the province of Rajpootana. 

The modern divisions are Judpore, Jay- 
sulmeer, Jaipore, Odeypore, and Bicaneer. 
The governmental peculiarities of the native 
states into which this great, but not very pro¬ 
ductive, province seems in all ages to have 
been broken up, resemble those of the feudal 
system in Europe. Each district, however 
small, was a sort of barony, and every town 
and village acknowledged a lord, or ihahoor. 
These feudal barons rendered nominal, and 
sometimes real allegiance, to the sovereign, 
or whoever else claimed presumptive autho¬ 
rity over them. It is supposed that the 
proportion of Mohammedans to Hindoos is 
one to eight. The number of the population 
cannot be accurately stated, nor within toler¬ 
able approximation to accuracy. Thirty years 
ago good authorities computed it at three 
millions; since then it has been estimated 


considerably less, and somewhat more, at dif¬ 
ferent times, and by different persons. 

The Rajpoot cavalry, in the service of the 
Delhi emperors, were highly prized for their 
faithfulness and courage. No part of India 
was torn so much by internecine struggle as 
Rajpootana, until, in 1818, the whole of the 
chiefs were taken under the protection of the 
British, and bound to submit all their dis¬ 
putes to the English agents, as well as pay 
all their taxes into the Delhi treasury, for 
which the British government would account 
to each. This arrangement became highly 
acceptable to the kings and the people, but 
was bitterly hated by the aristocracy, whose 
power in their separate jajires was thus 
abridged, and who lost all hope of rising to 
the dignity and power of princes by success¬ 
ful raids and ambitious policy. The oppres¬ 
sions practised by the feudal tyrants, great 
and small, of this province have been de¬ 
scribed as “ more systematic, unremitting, 
and brutal than ever before trampled on 
humanity.” 

Ajmeer is the name of a city and district, 
from which the designation is also given to 
the whole province. This territory is w T ell 
known in England as the dominion of Scin- 
diah. The family of Scindiah are Brahmins, 
but have always manifested great respect for 
the Mohammedan religion. 

The city of Ajmeer possesses nothing 
attractive but its Mohammedan remains. It 
possesses “ a garden palace,” built by Shah 
Jehan. The tomb of Khaja Maijen-ad-Deen 
is also an object of interest. He is a great 
reputed saint of Islam. The mighty Emperor 
Akbar made a pilgrimage to this tomb from 
Agra, two hundred and thirty miles distant, 
on foot. Scindiah bestowed a canopy of cloth 
of gold for this tomb, and also a superb pall. 
Although the town of Ajmeer is so small a 
place, there are more than a thousand persons 
of a sacerdotal, or otherwise sacred character, 
who live by charity, so-called, but which may 
be more properly designated plunder, as it is 
extorted from the visitors to the saint’s tomb. 
It is distant two hundred and thirty miles 
from Delhi, more than a thousand from Cal¬ 
cutta, and about two-thirds of that distance 
from Bombay. 

The country of the Bhatties is only inter¬ 
esting because of its inhabitants, who are sup¬ 
posed by many to be descended from the 
aborigines of Northern India, as distinguished 
from the Hindoo race. The women of this 
tribe go unveiled, and have greater liberty 
than is conceded by the Hindoo race or the 
Affghans. Bhatties inhabit also the border 
provinces of the Punjaub, and are said to 
have set the example for the superior social 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


119 


Chap. V ] 

influence of woman in that province. In 
various hill regions of India this people are 
found. The Bhatties are predatory, and 
until lately were indomitable plunderers, 
finding shelter in their extensive and formerly 
impenetrable jungles when pursued by a 
superior force. 

Bicanur is a rajalik of little importance, 
occupying the centre of the Ajmeer province. 
The capital is alleged to appear magnificent 
on approaching it, in consequence of the con¬ 
trast its temples, and minarets, and white 
buildings afford to the gloomy desert of sand 
by which it is surrounded.* According to 
some travellers, it is a miniature Palmyra; 
according to others, it is almost as miser¬ 
able as the wilderness that extends to its 
walls. 

The Jeypore district is only remarkable 
for its handsome capital, which is situated in 
latitude 26° 55' north, and longitude 75° 37' 
east. The city from an ancient date was 
respectable, and it is still a place of some 
importance, Rajah Jeysingh having encou¬ 
raged education there, and built several ob¬ 
servatories for the advancement of astrono¬ 
mical science. At present it is considered one 
of the best built towns in Hindoostan. The 
houses are of stone; the streets are spacious, 
and of imposing length, intersecting each 
other at right angles, like the city, of Phila¬ 
delphia, in the United States of America. 
The citadel is picturesque—built upon a steep 
rock, and surrounded for four miles by a 
chain of fortifications. Jeypore is one hun¬ 
dred and fifty miles from Delhi, nearly equi¬ 
distant from Agra, a thousand from Calcutta, 
and three-fourths of that distance from 
Bombay. 

The dominions of Holkar, although wild, 
and inhabited by a predatory people, possess 
some good towns. The vigilance of the Bri¬ 
tish keeps these regions in awe. During the 
mutiny of the Bengal sepoys in 1857, Holkar 
and Scindiah remained faithful, under strong 
temptations to swerve, in their allegiance to 
the British. Their troops and people, espe¬ 
cially the former, were heartily with the 
mutineers, and many joined their bands in 
the struggle which raged in the north-western 
provinces. 

Boondee, Odeyfore, and Mewar, are in 
some respects interesting regions, and con¬ 
tain fertile territory. Odeypore especially 
has lands as rich as any in India. 

There is little in the remaining portions 
of the Ajmeer province to require more par¬ 
ticular detail. 

The south-western frontier provinces con¬ 
tain considerable variety, and a large area of 
* Elphinstone. 


surface, with a numerous population. Con¬ 
tiguous territories have been so far minutely 
described as to comprehend the general cha¬ 
racteristics of these provinces. 

Pachete is remarkable for the good quality 
of its coal, and its general insalubrity. 

Chuta, or Chota Nagpore (Little Nag- 
pore), is an extensive tract, as hilly as Malwah, 
and covered with jungle. There is a vast 
quantity of decaying vegetable matter con¬ 
stantly emitting deleterious gases, causing 
jungle fever and other fatal diseases. The 
country produces iron ore, and, the natives 
allege, also diamonds. The aboriginal inha¬ 
bitants cling to the jungle, and are hated and 
persecuted by the Brahmins whenever oppor¬ 
tunity allows. 

The north-eastern frontier provinces com¬ 
prise Assam, and several very wild regions. 

The chief province in this direction is 
Assam. It is situated at the north-east 
corner of Bengal, stretching up to the country 
of Thibet. The chief portion of the territory 
consists in the valley of the Brahmapootra. 
The average breadth of the valley is about 
seventy miles. In Upper Assam, where the 
mountains recede more, the valley is much 
broader. The province is computed to be 
three hundred and fifty miles in length, and 
about seventy in average breadth. It is 
divided into three districts—Camroop in the 
west, Assam proper in the centre, and Lodiya 
at the eastern extremity. 

The rivers of Assam are probably more 
numerous, and larger than those in any other 
country of similar extent. In the dryest 
season they contain sufficient water for pur¬ 
poses of navigation. The number of rivers, 
exclusive of the Brahmapootra and its two 
great branches, the Deing and Looichel, are 
sixty. The course of many is very devious, 
irrigating a large extent of country. A striking- 
instance of this is seen in the Dikrung, where 
the direct distance by land is only twenty- 
five miles, while the course of the stream is 
over one hundred. This river is noted for 
the quantity of gold found in its sands, which 
is also of the purest quality. Many of the 
Assam rivers wash down particles of auri¬ 
ferous metal from the great mountains. 

The vegetable productions are numerous, 
and such as might be expected in a rich allu¬ 
vial country. Rice, mustard-seed, wheat, 
barley, millet, pulse, black pepper, ginger, 
turmeric, capsicums, onions, garlic, betel leaf, 
tobacco, opium, sugar-cane, are all cultivated, 
and yield remunerative crops. The fruits 
chiefly eaten are oranges and pomegranates; 
the cocoa-nut is highly prized by the inha¬ 
bitants, but, from the remoteness of their 
country from the sea, this excellent fruit is 



120 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. V 


scarce. Cotton is produced, and silk still 
more extensively. On another page was 
noticed the indigenous teas of Assam, and 
the cultivation of the plants under the aus¬ 
pices of the Honourable East India Com¬ 
pany. 

Domestic animals are not in great variety. 
Buffaloes are reared in considerable numbers, 
and employed by the agriculturists. The 
wealth of the community in cattle, sheep, and 
goats, is small. Aquatic birds are surpris¬ 
ingly numerous, and of excellent flavour. 
The wild duclc of Assam is highly prized by 
epicures. 

The religions of the Assamese are Brah- 
minism and Buddhism. So lately as the 
beginning of the seventeenth century they 
worshipped a god called Chung, and the 
superstition associated with his service was 
exceedingly debased. About one-fourth of 
the population obstinately reject the religions 
of Hindoostan, and cherish more obscure 
rites. The Mohammedans attempted the 
invasion of the country, under Shah Jehan, 
in the early part of the seventeenth century, 
but were driven back by disease, the diffi¬ 
culties of the country, and the desultory war¬ 
fare of the natives. Ever since the Moham¬ 
medans of India have had a horror of the 
country, and speak of it as haunted by fiends 
and enchanters. 

The Assamese remained a warlike, spirited, 
and united people until the conversion of the 
court and the higher orders to Brahminism, 
since which time they have sunk into one of 
the most pusillanimous races of Asia. The 
introduction of caste created internal feuds; 
and the enervating influence of Brahminism 
unmanned the people. 

Assam has suffered much, even since its 
subjection to British authority, by robbers 
from Hindoostan. 

The Assam province of Camroop contains 
many traces of great prosperity, and once 
had a numerous population; it is now in a 
poor condition. 

The island of Majuli, formed by the Brah¬ 
mapootra, is covered with temples, and in¬ 
habited only by persons of supposed sanctity. 

Rungpore is a town situated on the Dikho 
River; it is the reputed capital, but possesses 
nothing to redeem it from contempt. 

Since the province fell under British au¬ 
thority, its improvement has been rapid. 

The inhabitants of the Garrow Mountains 
are a strange and ferocious race. An old 
writer * describes them as of great strength 
and daring; a man, he alleges, can carry a 
weight over the mountains one-third heavier 
than a Bengalee can carry on the plains; and 
* Buchanan. 


the women can carry a weight in the moun¬ 
tain country equal to what a Bengalee man 
can bear in the valley. According to the 
same authority, the culinary habits of 'his 
race are very extraordinary. They will feed 
puppies with as much rice as they can incite 
them to devour, and then throw them alive 
on a fire; when cooked to their taste, they 
remove them, but do not eat the animals; 
ripping them up, they partake of the rice 
which the dog had previously swallowed! 
Their vindictiveness is unsurpassed. If de¬ 
prived of the smallest portion of property, 
they will commit murder ; and if they cannot 
resent an injury promptly, they will flee to a 
place of retreat, plant a tree called chatakor, 
which bears a sour fruit, and vow that with 
the juice of this fruit they will one day eat 
the head of their enemy. If the feud is not 
thus settled by the -original antagonists, it is 
handed down as an inheritance to their chil¬ 
dren. When at last success attends the efforts 
to fulfil the horrid vow, the victor summons 
his friends to the repast; the tree is then cut 
down, and the feud terminates. When they 
kill Bengalees, they decapitate them, and 
dance round their bleeding heads. They 
then bury them, and at intervals raise them, 
and renew the dance. Finally, they cleanse 
them, and hang up the skulls as trophies. 
These skulls are often filled with food or drink, 
of which they partake with their friends. Of 
late years the British police watch too well 
for these raids upon the Bengalees to be fre¬ 
quent, but so late as 1815 such practices were 
very common,* and for many years after con¬ 
tinued to be practised. Strange as it might 
seem to a native of any other nation under 
heaven, human skulls constituted in those 
days the circulating medium, as much as a 
thousand rupees being the equivalent of some. 
To avoid the possibility of his cranium be¬ 
coming currency, the friends of a Garrow 
man burn his body completely to ashes. The 
women are strong, ill-looking, join in the 
councils and raids of the men, work hard, and 
possess a position of importance unknown to 
the women of the plains. Polytheism is the 
religion of the Garrow hills. The people 
have no temples or idols, hut worship animals 
and vegetables, the tiger and the bamboo 
being the favourites. 

Mumpore, or Cassaye, is remarkable foT 
the soft features of its inhabitants, as com¬ 
pared with surrounding tribes. They are of 
the Brahminical religion, and in this respect 
are noticeable, as they are the last tribe east¬ 
ward by which it is embraced, the religion 
of Buddha prevailing thence throughout the 
entire East. 

* Sissou. 





Chap. V.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


121 


TERRITORIES ON THE INDO-CHINESE 
PENINSULA. 

The remaining territories included in the 
non-regulation provinces of Bengal are be¬ 
yond the India peninsula, on the eastern 
peninsula of Southern Asia. A glance at one 
of Wylde’s excellent maps will show that this 
peninsula is bound on the north by the Chi¬ 
nese empire, on the east by theXlhinese Sea, 
on the west by the Bay of Bengal, and on the 
south by the Straits of Malacca and the Gulf 
of Siam. The Indo-Chinese peninsula is 
computed to be above eighteen hundred miles 
in length, and of breadth exceedingly various, 
being only sixty miles across where the 
peninsula of Malacca is narrowest, and more 
than eight hundred miles in the north. Its 
superficial area is supposed to be nearly six 
hundred thousand square miles. The interior 
is so little known, that description of it is 
impossible. “ Its distinguishing aspect ap¬ 
pears to be determined by chains of moun¬ 
tains running uniformly in the direction of 
the meridian, inclosing distinct valleys no less 
uniform, each valley assuming a fan-like 
shape at the maritime extremity, and each 
the bed of a grand river-system. The three 
principal streams—the Irrawaddy westward, 
the Meinam central, and the Cambodia east¬ 
ward—descend from the highlands of Thibet, 
pour down immense volumes of water, and 
rank with the largest rivers of Asia. The 
first flows through the Birman empire to the 
Bay of Bengal, at the Gulf of Martaban ; the 
second waters Siam, and enters the gulf of 
that name; and the third, which has the 
largest course, passes through the empire of 
Annam to the Chinese Sea. Few regions 
exhibit such an amount of vegetable luxuri¬ 
ance, vast tracts being densely clothed with 
underwood and timber-trees, comprising teak, 
the iron-tree, true ebony, the eagle-wood, the 
white sandal-wood, betel-palms, and a great 
variety of aromatic and medicinal plants. 
The mineral wealth of the country is also 
very considerable, gold, silver, copper, and 
iron occurring in the mountains, with many 
precious gems—rubies, sapphires, and ame¬ 
thysts. Most of the large quadrupeds of 
India are found among the native animals.” * 
Irrespective of the British possessions, 
which cover a vast area, the following are 
its great divisions :— 


States. Population. Capitals and Chief Towns. 

Birman Empire. 8,000,000 . . Ava, Rangoon, Pegu. 

Kingdom of Siam .... 2,700,000 . . Bankok. 

Empire of Annam .... 10,000,000 . . Hue, Saigon, Cambodia. 
Country of the Laos . . . Unknown 
Malaya. 300,000 


The Birmese empire comprises the north¬ 
west, about one-fifth of the whole peninsula. 
* The Rev. Thomas Milner. 

VOL. I. 


The kingdom of Siam stretches round the 
head of the gulf which bears its name, and 
reaches a considerable distance inland, with 
the upper portion of the Malacca peninsula. 
The empire of Annam lies along the eastern 
coast, and is divided into several regions, the 
principle of which are called Tonquin, Cochin 
China, and Cambodia, lying in that order 
from north to south. The country of the 
Laos is a mountainous realm in the interior. 
Malaya is the southern portion of the Ma¬ 
lacca peninsula. The British possessions are 
on the western shores of the peninsula, washed 
by the waves of the Bay of Bengal, and com¬ 
prise the provinces of Arracan, Pegu, and 
Tenesserim, stretching along the whole west 
coast, from the confines of Chittagong to the 
isthmus of Krow. 

Arracan is one of the non-regulation pro¬ 
vinces of the Bengal government, situated on 
the western coast of the Indo -Chinese peninsula. 
It stretches away from the boundaries of the 
Bengal regulation province of Chittagong to 
the limits of Pegu. The country is an undu¬ 
lated plain, gently sloping upwards from the 
sea to a range of mountains, by which it is 
bounded to the east along its whole extent. 
This plain is nowhere more than a hundred 
miles in breadth; and towards Pegu, the 
mountains gradually inclining to the sea, it 
is not more than ten miles in width. Arra¬ 
can is, in fact, a continuation of the great 
Chittagong plain from the banks of the river 
Nauf. The whole country is well watered, 
and the great Arracan River forms a medium 
of great importance in commercial inter¬ 
course with Chittagong and Bengal. It is in 
that direction the chief commercial connection 
is maintained. Southward to Pegu there are 
few exports, although a considerable import 
of teak-timber, which is generally paid for in 
money. Of late years this has fallen off, the 
timber of their own well-clad mountains being 
brought into use by the Arracanese. To 
Chittagong and Calcutta the exports are 
valuable, consisting of elephants, elephants’ 
teeth, cattle, goats, minerals, and many other 
commodities, to be noticed more fitly in a 
chapter upon the commerce of India. The 
province is exceedingly fertile, and was ex¬ 
tremely rich previous to the depredations 
committed by the Birmese, whose conquests 
were attended by the utter impoverishment 
of the whole region. Since its annexation by 
the British it has again assumed a prosperous 
aspect, and is now rapidly rising to its ancient 
condition of wealth. 

There are many islands scattered along the 
coast, and it is a peculiarity of them that each 
appears shaped like some animal. The larger 
islands are densely inhabited, and import rice 

R 





122 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. V. 


from Bengal in large quantities. The com¬ 
merce of the region, and especially of the 
great Arracan River, is greatly impeded by 
exposure to the south-west monsoon. The 
inhabitants are very expert in boat naviga¬ 
tion, but are indisposed to build or use large 
vessels, such as the increasing commerce of 
their coasts requires. Their love of aquatic 
pursuits, and of maritime life, is extreme— 
much more so than is the case with their 
northern neighbours of Chittagong, hut scarcely 
bo much so as with their southern rivals 
of Pegu. They are a well-formed, hardy race, 
tenacious of purpose, robust, in mind as well 
as body, and cherish an extraordinary anti¬ 
pathy to the Birmese, whereas to the British 
they are partial. Hindoos, of both the Brah- 
minical and Mohammedan religions, have 
settled in great numbers along the sea-hoard. 
The Arracanese themselves are Buddhists. 
To Europeans the people of this region are 
better known by the name of Mhugs. Their 
fierce resentments against the Birmese, their 
raids into the Chittagong district, and the 
troubles with Birmah in which they involved 
us, created in the earlier part of this cen¬ 
tury an unwarrantable prejudice against them, 
which has not- entirely worn away. Their 
language is purer than that of Birmah, and 
its roots are monosyllabic, like the spoken 
language of China. Schools are common, 
such as in the chapter on religion and litera¬ 
ture were described as abounding in the 
Pegu and Tenesserim provinces. The exer¬ 
tions of the European missionary societies 
along the Arracan valley have been great 
and successful. It is not so difficult to gain 
access to females for purposes of instruction 
as in the Indian peninsula, and female chil¬ 
dren are allowed to go to the mission schools. 
Considering its geographical situation, cli¬ 
mate, capacity for commerce of its great navi¬ 
gable river, natural productions, the energy 
of the inhabitants, and their willingness to 
receive instruction, it may be with reason 
predicted that the province will become one 
of the most valuable countries in our Indian 
empire. 

The town of Arracan, called by the natives 
Rakkong, is situated on the banks of the river 
Arracan, some considerable distance from its 
mouth, in latitude 29° 40' north, and longi¬ 
tude 93° S' east. The Birmans made a boat 
expedition up the river in 1783, and easily 
captured it, plundering private and public 
property. Among other booty, they bore 
away a great brazen image of “Gaudma” 
(the Gotama Buddha of the Hindoos). This 
image was supposed to be an exact likeness 
of the great founder of their religion. There 
were also five colossal images of demons in 


brass, which surrounded that of Gaudma. 
Saint and demons were alike carried captive 
by the Birmans, and brought to their capital 
with wild demonstrations of joy and triumph. 
Previously Buddhists from every land were 
accustomed to repair to Arracan to do honour 
to those brazen images. A piece of cannon 
of enormous size, consisting of iron bars beaten 
into form, was also taken off by the Birmans. 

Pegu is another non-regulation province of 
the Bengal government on the same coast, 
stretching from the boundaries of Arracan on 
the north, to those of Siam on the south. 
The aborigines call themselves Mon: by the 
Birmese and Chinese they are called Talleing. 
The name Pegu is a corruption of Bagoo, the 
common name given by the people to their 
old capital. North-east of Pegu the Birman 
territory ranges partly parallel, and partly at 
right angles, with the sea. To the east is the 
territory of Siam, and also to the south. The 
best parts of the province lie along the shores 
of the mouths of two great rivers—the Irra¬ 
waddy and Thaulayn. 

Agriculture being in its infancy, much land 
is unreclaimed which is admirably adapted to 
the products of the climate. Dense thickets 
skirt the banks of the rivers, which abound 
with game, and beautiful peafowl especially. 
Tigers also prowl there, similar in species to 
the celebrated tiger of Bengal. Except where 
thickets are allowed to grow close by the 
marshy land of the rivers, the country is 
clear for a hundred miles inland from the 
sea, and is exceedingly prolific in rice, sugar¬ 
cane, and various other products necessary 
to the people, or profitable for commerce. 
Like Arracan, it is a province in which 
horses are very scarce, and elephants abound. 
These descend in troops from the higher 
land, trampling down the rice and cane-fields, 
inflicting vast mischief, independent of what 
they devour. The inhabitants, however, 
prize the elephant exceedingly, and even 
regard it with superstitious veneration. The 
agriculture and commerce of Pegu have im¬ 
proved much since it fell into the possession 
of the English. 

The people were once famous in the East, 
having conquered the greater portion of the 
peninsula from the confines of Thibet to their 
own proper boundaries. Unfortunately for 
themselves, they courted the alliance of the 
Portuguese, Dutch, and French by turns, ex¬ 
citing thereby the jealousy of the more power¬ 
ful rival of those European powers—England. 
The consequence was, that the Birmese, en¬ 
couraged and aided by the British, revolted 
against their Peguan masters, and subjected 
them in turn. The country being everywhere 
intersected by rivers, the English found it 




Chat. '7.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


123 


subsequently a useful base of operations 
against the Birman empire. 

The religion is Buddhist, and, like all other 
Buddhist communities, the people profess to 
be atheistical materialists, and worship Go- 
tama, or, as they call him, Gaudma, himself. 
They allow to woman far more importance 
in the social scale than the Hindoos and Mo¬ 
hammedans of the neighbouring peninsula, or 
than their eastern co-religionists, the Chinese, 
but not more so than the Birmans. The editor 
of an Indian journal says of them—“ Perhaps 
their most remarkable departure from oriental 
customs is the social position in which they 
have placed their women. Although gene¬ 
rally without even the education afforded by 
the kioungs, or village schools, the mothers 
and wives of these countries occupy a promi¬ 
nent position in society, and take a share in 
the daily business of life rarely to be met 
with eastward of the Cape.” The same writer 
does them justice when he describes their 
general character in these terms :—“ In their 
manners and general habits the Peguans and 
Talains of the Tenesserim and neighbouring 
provinces are decidedly superior to the Hin¬ 
doo, though perhaps less industriously dis¬ 
posed. In all that relates to education, in 
their freedom from the ban of caste and the 
slavery of baneful superstition, in the supe¬ 
riority of their social system, these people 
form a remarkable exception to the state of 
debasement in which most of the Asiatic 
nations are plunged.” 

The Peguans appear to have been civilised 
at an earlier period and in a higher degree than 
any nation of the Indo-Chinese peninsula. 
At all events, as compared with the Birmans, 
their advancement in the arts of life and in 
civilisation of feeling, as well as circumstance, 
was much earlier, and more complete. They 
seem, like the Mhugs of Arracan, to have 
been always partial to navigation. The im¬ 
mense river-surface of their country, as well 
as the extended sea-board, conduce to this. 
A recent historian says of them what ap¬ 
pears to have been true ever since they were 
known to Europeans :—“ A Birman or Peguan 
will never journey by land so long as he can 
go by water; and so addicted are they from 
their earliest infancy to boat travelling, that 
the canoe enters into almost all their arrange¬ 
ments. Their cattle are fed out of canoes; 
their children sleep in them; their vessels of 
domestic use are canoe-shaped; they travel 
by land in canoe-shaped carriages; and it 
may be almost said that their earliest and 
their latest moments are passed in canoes.” 
The admirable teak timber, produced in such 
great abundance in the province, enables the 
people to make more progreee ; u shipbuilding 


than other nations on that or the neighbouring 
peninsula. The Arabs of Muscat, who were 
a maritime people in their prosperity and 
power, repaired to the coasts of Pegu to build 
their ships of war, some of which were of 
considerable size. The commerce now carried 
on between Bengal and Pegu in teak for ship¬ 
building is very considerable. Like the neigh¬ 
bouring division of Arracan, Pegu is wonder¬ 
fully productive, and promises to be one of the 
most valuable territories under the British 
Indian government. While under the domi¬ 
nion of Birmah, no brick buildings were 
allowed to be reared, except for the use of the 
government, or for the worship of Buddha. 
The efforts of Christian missionaries, espe¬ 
cially from the United States of America, for 
the propagation of the gospel and the educa¬ 
tion of the people, especially the rising female 
generation, have been crowned with success.* 
The language of Pegu is called Mon; it is a 
very ancient language. The Birmese and 
Siamese deny that it has any affinity to 
theirs. Its roots are monosyllabic. The British 
have found northern Pegu a more healthy 
climate than any other part of that peninsula. 
During our conflicts with Birmah, troops that 
had sickened in the neighbourhood of Ran¬ 
goon. rapidly recovered their health when 
stationed at Prome, and on other portions of 
the Peguan coast. 

Pegu is the modern capital; Prome is 
alleged to have been the ancient metropolis. 
The town of Pegu is situated in latitude 
17° 40' north, and longitude 96° 12' east. 
It is less than a hundred miles above Ran¬ 
goon, which was until lately the commer¬ 
cial capital of Birmah. It was at a former 
period a place of considerable extent. About 
a century ago the Birmans sacked it, razing 
every dwelling-house, and carrying away 
captive its whole population. The public 
buildings were all destroyed, except the 
temples, which the conquerors respected. 
They did not, however, keep them in repair, 
and the buildings gradually fell to ruins. The 
pyramid of Shoemadoo was an exception to 
this. The measurement of this pile is one hun¬ 
dred and sixty-two feet at each side of the 
base. “ The great breadth diminishes abruptly 
in the shape of a speaking-trumpet. The 
elevation of the building is three hundred 
and sixty-one feet. On the top is an iron 
tee, or umbrella, fifty-six feet in circum¬ 
ference, which is gilt. The conqueror in¬ 
tended to gild the whole building, but did 
not execute his purpose. On the north side 
of the building are three large bells of good 
workmanship, suspended near the ground, to 
announce to the spirit of Gaudma the approach 
* See Chapter ou Religion, Literature, &c. 



124 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VI 


of a suppliant, who places his offering, con¬ 
sisting of boiled rice, a plate of sweetmeats, 
or a cocoa-nut fried in oil, on a bench near 
the foot of the temple. After it is offered, 
the devotee seems indifferent what becomes 
of it, and it is often devoured before his face 
by crows or dogs, which he never attempts to 
disturb. Numberless images of Gaudma lie 
scattered about.” * The way in which the 
vast number of scattered images is accounted 
for by the writer from whom the foregoing 
account is taken is very singular, and pro¬ 
bably unparalleled in the East or anywhere 
else. It is substantially as follows :—A de¬ 
votee purchases an idol; he then procures its 
consecration by the monks, and leaves it in 
one of the monasteries at hand, or places it on 
the open ground, where he leaves it, as re¬ 
gardless of what may happen to it as another 
worshipper is of the viands which he places 
there. These images are sometimes valuable, 
composed of marble which takes a fine polish; 
sometimes of bone or ivory, and of silver, but 
never of gold. The monks affirm that the 
building was begun two thousand three hun¬ 
dred years ago; that it required many gene¬ 
rations to complete it, and was a task handed 
down by successive monarchs to those who 
inherited their power. There is but little to 
interest the traveller or the politician at the 
city of Pegu, except its religious remains. 

Tenesserim is the last of the non-regula¬ 
tion provinces of the Bengal government upon 
this coast. It lies along the sea-shore, between 
the southern extremity of Pegu and the 
isthmus of Krow. It is, therefore, bounded 
by Pegu, the sea, and the country of Siam. 
There are not many respects in which it 
differs from Pegu, either in the character of 
its people or productions. The climate is 
warmer, and more moist, although the river- 


surface is not so great as it is in Pegu or 
Arracan. The country about Martaban is so 
similar to that of Pegu, as to come under the 
descriptions applicable to it. The resources 
of the narrow strip of country which continues 
the British possessions from Pegu to the 
isthmus of Krow are various, and capable of 
great development. The people possess some 
of the Siamese characteristics, and the lan¬ 
guage also. Schools and ministerial instruc¬ 
tion are provided extensively by the Ame¬ 
rican board of missions; and the labours of 
those devout and zealous men, especially in 
the education of female youth, have been at¬ 
tended with triumphant success.* “ The 
animals of the Tenesserim province differ in 
few particulars from those of Hindoostan 
proper. Elephants, tigers, bears, and pan¬ 
thers abound, while species of the rhinoceros, 
the hare, the rabbit, the porcupine, are also to 
be met with in considerable numbers. The 
most interesting and valuable of all the ani¬ 
mals of this region is a hardy and swift-footed 
pony, highly esteemed throughout all parts of 
India, especially for mountain journeys, where, 
from their being so sure-footed, they are in¬ 
valuable. The sheep and goat are rarely met 
with here, but buffaloes, oxen, and several 
varieties of the deer are plentiful.” 

The non-regulation provinces of the Bengal 
government have received in this chapter 
as full a notice as our space will allow. It 
would require a book of larger extent than 
this History to give so minute a description 
of these fine regions as might be desirable 
and useful. The detail here given is, how¬ 
ever, sufficiently minute to unfold to the 
reader the great resources of the noble lands 
comprehended within the regulation and non- 
regulation provinces of Bengal and the Agra 
governments. 


CHAPTER VI. 

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE DECCAN—PRESIDENCY OF MADRAS—COLLECTORATES 

AND CITIES. 


Before entering into any particular descrip¬ 
tion of Madras, it is necessary to notice one 
of the great natural divisions of India, called 
the Deccan. A portion of it only belongs to 
Madras; a much larger section of it to Bom¬ 
bay ; a very small amount of its territory in 
the province of Orissa, as already shown, is 
comprised in Bengal. The largest area of 
the Deccan is under the control of native 
princes. By here noticing it as a natural 
* Symes. 


division of India, facilities will be afforded in 
describing the presidencies of Madras and 
Bombay. 

The country south of the Vindaya Moun¬ 
tains receives the designation of “the Dec- 
can.” •[ A portion of this great division of 
the peninsula is called Southern India, which 
comprises the whole country south of the 
Kistna River. The late editor of the Ceylon 

* See Chapter on Religions, Literature, &c. 

t For relative geographical situation see pp. a, 6. 




Chap. VI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


125 


Examiner thus characterises the Deccan:— 
“ The distinguishing feature of the Deccan 
consists of the lofty ranges of mountains 
which skirt it on every side; they are named 
the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and West¬ 
ern Ghauts. The latter skirt the shores of 
the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal, at 
distances varying from one hundred to ten 
miles, those on the eastern coast being the 
most remote. Their altitude varies from 
eight thousand feet downwards. On the 
southern extremity of the Western Ghauts 
are the Nilgherry Mountains, stretching east¬ 
ward, and famed throughout Southern India 
for their fine climate and fertile tracts of 
table-land. On this range have been estab¬ 
lished the sanitary stations of Ootacamund 
and Dimhntty, where Europeans enjoy the 
bracing temperature of alpine lands within a 
few days’ journey of Madras. At the northern 
extremity of the western range, immediately 
opposite Bombay, are the Mahabalipoora 
Mountains, rising to a height of five thousand 
and thirty-six feet, on which the sanitorium 
of Mahabeleshwar has been established for 
the benefit of that presidency. The Ally- 
gherry Mountains are an offshoot of the 
Southern Ghauts. In that portion of the 
Deccan known as Southern India are several 
independent states. The King of Travancore 
and the Rajah of Cochin are both allies of 
the Honourable East India Company, and 
offer every facility for the prosecution of 
commercial enterprise in their territories. The 
Deccan proper comprises all that portion of 
the peninsula which lies between the valley 
of the Nerbuddah on the north, and the deep 
pass known as the Gap of Coimbatore, run¬ 
ning from east to west at about 11° north 
latitude.” 

A considerable portion of the Deccan proper 
is under the control of native chiefs or rajahs, 
protected by the company. 

The British possessions in the Deccan, 
united to all the presidencies, do not com¬ 
prise at the utmost more than forty-five thou¬ 
sand square miles. 

The table-land, which comprises the whole 
natural division of the Deccan, is fertile. 
The mountains are generally bare and barren, 
“ except where their spurs form broken 
valleys, which are covered with extensive 
forests.” 

The people who inhabit the whole region 
bearing the general name of “the Deccan” 
are chiefly Hindoos, especially those who in¬ 
habit the provinces formerly under the Mah- 
ratta chiefs. There is a considerable Moham¬ 
medan population, especially in the nizam’s 
country; but those of them who are culti¬ 
vators of the soil have assumed the manners 


and customs of the Hindoos, so as scarcely to 
be distinguished from them. 

The principal modern sub-divisions of the 
Deccan proper are the following :— 


Gundwana. 

Orissa. 

The Northern Circars. 
Candeish. 

Berar. 


Beeder. 

Hyderabad. 

Aurangabad. 

Bejapore. 


The province of Gundwana extends from 
the eighteenth to the twenty-fifth degree of 
north latitude. On the north it is bounded 
by Allahabad and Bahar; on the south, by 
Berar, Hyderabad, and Orissa; on the east it 
has Bahar and Orissa; and to the west, 
Allahabad, Malwah, Candeish, Berar, and 
Hyderabad. It is about four hundred miles 
in length, and less than three hundred in 
breadth. This is the measurement of Gun¬ 
dwana in its most extensive signification, but 
Gundwana proper is of much smaller extent. 
Much of the country is wild, and covered 
with jungle, ruled by petty chiefs, who 
render imperfect allegiance either to the 
superior princes or the East India Company, 
to whom many of them pay a nominal tribute. 
The region is ill-watered, none of the few 
rivers that flow through it being navigable 
within its limits.' Its mountains contain the 
sources of the Nerbuddah and the Sone. 
Some portions of these hill regions are wil¬ 
derness, and the inhabitants sunk in the 
lowest degrees of degradation. No one seems 
to have thought of them as objects of commi¬ 
seration or interest in any way except the 
missionaries, some of whom, from the Church 
Missionary Society, have gone amongst them, 
and called the attention of government to 
their debased condition. Those portions of 
the province which are at all fertile, or where 
any form of civilisation has prevailed, have 
been the scenes for many ages of the most 
sanguinary conflicts, their history being made 
up of intrigues of chief against chief, despe¬ 
rate raids from one principality to another, 
social oppression, and filthy and abominable 
idolatry. Hardly a page of human history 
could be darker than that upon which should 
be recorded the story of these principalities. 

The province of Orissa extends from the 
eighteenth to the twenty-third degree of 
north latitude. To the north it is bounded 
by Bengal; to the south, by the river God- 
avery; on the east it has the Bay of Bengal ; 
and on the west, the province of Gundwana. 
Its extent is about four hundred miles, from 
north-east to south-west, by seventy, the 
average breadth. About half the province is 
now British territory, and attached to Bengal, 
as shown in a previous chapter ; the other por¬ 
tion is possessed by tributary zemindars. The 




m 

British division lies along the Bay of Bengal; 
it is fertile and low, but thinly peopled, and 
celebrated for the temple of Juggernaut, of 
which an account was given when treating of 
Bengal. The native division is a territory of 
hill, rock, forest, and jungle—a wild region, but 
yields more grain than its scanty population 
consumes, which is borne down to Bengal. 

The Northern Circars extend along the 
Bay of Bengal from the fifteenth to the twen¬ 
tieth degree of north latitude. They have a 
coast-line of four hundred and seventy miles, 
from Mootapilly, their northern extremity, to 
Malwal, on the borders of the Chilka Lake. 
They are separated from Hyderabad by low 
detached hills, which extend to the Godavery ; 
and, north of that stream, from Gundwana, by 
a range of higher hills. “ From hence the 
chain of hills curves to the eastward, and, 
with the Chilka Lake, forms a barrier of fifty 
miles to the north, except a tongue of land 
between that lake and the sea. Towards the 
south, the small river Gundegama, which 
empties itself at Mootapilly, separates the 
Circars from Oragole and the Carnatic, below 
the ghauts.” The climate of this region is 
intolerably hot. At the mouth of the Kistna 
River the glass rises to 110°, remaining for six 
or eight days at that elevation; and it is re¬ 
lated that the heat has been at 112° two 
hours after sunset. Neither wood nor glass 
bears this heat—the one warps, and the other 
flies or cracks. The higher parts of the 
country are infested by pestilential vapours, 
and no European can resist them without the 
imminent risk of “ the hill fever,” which also 
carries off great numbers of the natives. The 
Circars are very productive of grain, and 
were formerly tbe granaries of the Carnatic. 
Bay-salt and tobacco, both of superior quality, 
are exported largely. The forests produce 
excellent teak-trees, rivalling those of Pegu. 
A considerable commerce is carried on with 
the city of Madras and with the island of 
Ceylon. The population are chiefly Hindoos, 
but there is a sprinlding of Mohammedans 
among them. Vizagapatam is a district of 
the Circars, and is classed for governmental 
purposes as one of the non-regulation pro¬ 
vinces of the Madras presidency. Masuli- 
patam, one of the regulation provinces of 
Madras, is included in the Circars; also 
Guntore. 

Candeish is a province of the Deccan at¬ 
tached to the Bombay government. It is one 
of the original Mahratta provinces, a large 
portion of it having been, with the adjoining 
province of Malwah, divided between Holkar, 
Scindiah, and the Peishwa. The whole coun¬ 
try is excessively wild, and inhabited by an 
insubordinate people: it is one of the least 


[Chat. VI. 

prosperous districts of India under regular 
government. 

Berar is a province of the Deccan between 
the nineteenth and twenty-first degree of 
north latitude, bounded on the north by Can¬ 
deish and Malwah, on the south by Aurung- 
abad and Beeder, on the east by Gundwana, 
and on the west by Candeish and Aurung- 
abad. The soil is that called the black cotton 
soil, and is here, as elsewhere, very proli¬ 
fic. Corn, peas, beans, vetches, flax, &c., are 
grown in abundance. The Nagpore wheat 
used to be considered the best in India. 
Under the government of “ the nizam,” the 
country was much oppressed and impover¬ 
ished, and its population remained far beneath 
what it was calculated to support. The whole 
region suffered from the most appalling fa¬ 
mines, partly from natural causes, hut chiefly 
through misgovernment. 

Beeder is a province of the Deccan, well 
known as a portion of the nizam’s dominions, 
which shared the general fate of misgovern¬ 
ment. 

The province of Hyderabad is situated 
between the tenth and the nineteenth degrees 
of north latitude: it measures two hundred 
and eighty miles by one hundred and ten. It 
is a productive country, well watered, and 
yielding fine wheat. Its rivers are not 
navigable, and this circumstance checks the 
production of many commodities suitable for 
export. The people of influence are chiefly 
Mohammedans. The capital is devoid of 
interest, although relatively a place of some 
importance. 

Aurungabad is a province lying between the 
eighteenth and twenty-first degrees of north 
latitude, bounded on the north by Gujerat, 
Candeish, and Berar; on the south byBejapore 
and Beeder; on the east by Berar and Hyder¬ 
abad; and on the west by the Indian Ocean. 
This province is also known by the name of 
Ahmednuggur, and is one of the regulation 
provinces of the Bombay presidency, within 
which the Bombay capital is situated. It 
will be more particularly noticed under the 
head of that presidency. 

Bejapore lies to the south of the pro¬ 
vince previously named. There is nothing 
to distinguish it from other provinces of the 
Deccan that requires a general description in 
this place. Sattara, now a non-regulation 
province of the Bombay presidency, lies 
within this province. The deposition of the 
Rajah of Sattara made much noise in Eng¬ 
land, in consequence of the eloquent advocacy 
of his interests by George Thompson, Esq. 

The forenamed territories belong to the 
Deccan proper. The other portions of the 
coxmtry to which the general name is applied 


HISTORY OF.THE BRITISH EMPIRE 




Chap. VI .'] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


127 


are comprehended in the natural division 
which many geographers adopt — Southern 
India, or India south of the Kistna River. 
The purposes for which a general view of the 
Deccan was introduced being answered, it 
is unnecessary to give a description of the 
provinces lying in this portion of the penin¬ 
sula, except under their proper presidential 
arrangement. 

The presidency of Madras comprehends a 
large portion of Southern India. It is under 
the jurisdiction of the governor and council 
of Madras. It extends along the east coast to 
the confines of Bengal, and along the south¬ 
west coast to the limits of Bombay. 

The following lists will show the military 
stations occupied by the Madras army, the 
collectorates into which, for purposes of go¬ 
vernment and revenue, it is divided, and the 
zillahs (local divisions):— 


MILITARY STATIONS. 


Arcot. 

Nagpore, or Kamptee. 

Arnee. 

Noagaum. 

Bellary. 

Ootacamund. 

Bangalore. 

Palaverem. 

Berhampore. 

Pallamcottah. 

Cannanore. 

Paulgautcherry. 

Cicacole. 

Poonamalee. 

Cuddapah. 

Quilon. 

DindiguL 

Russell Koonda. 

Ellore. 

Samulcottah. 

French Rocks, or Yellore. 

St. Thomas’s Mount. 

Hurryhnrr. 

Secunderabad. 

Jaulnah. 

Trichinopoly. 

Madras, or Fort St. George. 

Vizagapatam. 

Moulmeyn (Birmah). 

Vizanagram. 

Mangalore. 

Vellore. 

Masulipatam. 

Muddakayray. 

Wallajabad. 


COLLECTORATES.* 


Arcot, 


J North, C., S.C. 
( South, C., S.C. 
Bellary, C., S.C. 
Cuddapah, C., S.C. 
Chingleput, C. 
Coimbatore, C., S.C. 
Canara, C., 2 S.Cs. 
Gangam, C., S.C. 
Guutore, C. 

Madras, 4 Cs. 

Madura, C., S.C. 


Malabar, C., S.C. 
Masulipatara, C. 
Nellore and ) p „ p 
Ongole, j ’’ 
Rajahmundry, C. 
Salem, C., S.C. 
Tanjore, C., S.C. 
Tinnivelly, C., S.C. 
Trichinopoly, C. 
Vizagapatam, C., S.C. 


ZILLAHS. 


NORTH DIVISION. 
Cicacole, J., R. 
Nellore, J., R. 
Rajahmundry, J., R. 

CENTRE DIVISION. 
Bellary, J., R. 
Chingleput, 2 Js., R. 
Chittore, J., R. 
Cuddapah, 2 Js., R. 


WEST DIVISION. 
Calient, 2 Js., R. 
Canara. 

Mangalore, 3 Js., R. 

SOUTH DIVISION. 
Combacorum, J., R. 
Madura, 2 Js., R. 
Salem, 3 Js., R. 


* C. denotes collector; D.C. deputy-collector; S.C. 
sub collector; J. judge; R recorder. 


The territories of Madras, regarded gene¬ 
rally, are a rich and valuable department of 
the British dominions; but the provinces 
comprised in this division are not so prolific 
as those of the Gangetic valley. It is a 
region which severely tries European consti¬ 
tutions, at some periods of the year especially. 
A gentleman, well acquainted with all the 
presidencies, thus describes its climate:— 
“ The Madras seasons and temperature differ 
from those of the other presidencies. January 
and February are the coldest months of the 
year: the thermometer ranges between 75° 
and 78°. Rain falls in slight showers con¬ 
tinually, leaving a deposit of fractions of an 
inch. From March to June the range is 
between 76° and 87°. In July the rains 
commence, and the thermometer then falls to 
84°. It retains that position, with very little 
deviation, through August, and about four 
inches of rain fall. In September the ther¬ 
mometer falD to 83°, and the rain increases. 
In October the clouds begin to assume a more 
dense appearance than heretofore; the ther¬ 
mometer declines to an average of 81°, and 
the rainy season fairly commences, just as it 
has terminated at the other presidencies. 
During November the rains fall very heavily, 
not less than fourteen inches being deposited. 
The thermometer falls to 75° in December, 
and the rains abate. Of course every scheme 
that human ingenuity can devise to mitigate 
the discomfort of heat is resorted to. The 
punkah is continually kept swinging over the 
head of the European; the window-blinds of 
the houses are closed to exclude as much 
light as may be consistent with convenience; 
matting of fragrant grass is placed at doors 
and windows, and continually watered; and 
every possible attention is paid by the pru¬ 
dent to clothing and to diet. From November 
to March woollen clothes may be worn with 
advantage: during the rest of the year every¬ 
body is clad in white cotton. No one ven¬ 
tures into the sun without parasols of a broad 
and shady form, or in palankeens roofed with 
tuskas. Nevertheless, the European constitu¬ 
tion is exposed to the attacks of many diseases. 
Fevers, dysentery, affections of the liver, 
cholera morbus, and rheumatism, are com¬ 
mon ; and there are numerous minor dis¬ 
orders, the effect of climate acting upon a 
slight or an excessively robust system, which 
few can escape. These latter consist of a 
troublesome cutaneous eruption, called prickly 
heat, boils, and ulcers. Boils grow to a large 
size, are excessively painful and disturbing, 
and the lancet is often necessary to the relief 
of the patient. Constipation is also a common 
complaint, needing exercise and stimulating 
medicines.” 









128 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VI. 


A very large region of the Madras territory 
is called the Carnatic, containing the districts 
of Nellore and Ougode, North Arcot, South 
Arcot, Chingleput, Tanjore, Trichinopoly, 
Dindigul and Madura, and Tinnivelly. The 
Carnatic was an ancient Hindoo geogra¬ 
phical division, which comprised the high 
table-land of Southern India situated above 
the Ghauts. By degrees the name became 
applied to the lower country extending to the 
sea-coast, and ultimately became confined to 
the country below the Ghauts, known now as 
the Carnatic and Canara. In remote periods 
of the history of India, the greater part of the 
south of India was comprehended in a power¬ 
ful empire bearing the name of the “Kamata.” 
The common Canara, or Kamataca, character 
and language are used by the people in all 
that region from Coimbatore north to Balky 
near Beeder, and between the eastern and 
western Ghauts across the peninsula. The 
Zelinga Mahratta and Kamataca (or Cama- 
taca) are all used in the neighbourhood of 
Beeder. 

The province of Canara is a collectorate 
under the modern arrangements of the Madras 
government. It extends from the twelfth to 
the fifteenth degree of north latitude, and is 
bounded to the north by Goa and the district 
of Gunduclc, in Bejapore, on the south by the 
Malabar, on the south-east by Mysore and 
Balaghaut, and on the west by the sea. This 
region is not known to the natives by the 
name we give it, nor did it at any past period 
in Indian history obtain that name. Geogra¬ 
phically, it is divided into north and south. 
The Western Ghauts approach the sea in 
several places, and in others rocky promi¬ 
nences branch off from the ghauts seaward. 
This configuration of country sometimes gives 
an impression of wildness, and sometimes of 
grandeur. It causes great ruggedness of 
surface, impeding in many directions the 
transport of articles of commerce, which 
circumstance compels the extensive use of 
manual labour, the peasantry carrying very 
heavy burdens upon their heads. Where 
tolerable roads exist, they are inferior to 
those in Malabar. The government does 
not appear to he blameworthy in this matter, 
as the peasantry use the water-courses for 
purposes of trade; the government would 
alone be benefited by good military roads. 
Villages are not numerous in Canara. The 
people, as in Malabar, live in their own 
homesteads, on the ground they cultivate; 
their abodes are humble, often wretched, hut 
generally shaded by trees, in consequence of 
the intense heat, so that the miserable cha¬ 
racter of the habitations is concealed in great 
measure from the eye of the traveller. The 


people are, however, more comfortable in 
circumstances than their dwellings would in - 
dicate, being generally proprietors of the 
land they till, and this seems to have been 
the case from very remote periods. This is 
a very different condition of things from what 
generally exists in India, where the land 
belongs to villages or communities; in Ca¬ 
nara, as in England, it is the property of the 
individual. There are, however, tenants-at- 
will and lessees, and sometimes suits-at-law 
and bitter personal feuds arise out of the pro¬ 
cesses of letting and sub-letting, similar to 
what so extensively prevail in Ireland. None 
of the raw materials necessary for manufac¬ 
tures are produced in any considerable quan¬ 
tities throughout this province. Its staple 
commodity is rice ; the ample rains and warm 
sun cause immense crops; and Canara is a 
great mart for rice grain to Arabia, Bombay, 
Goa, and Malabar. North Canara produces 
sandal-wood, sugar-cane, teak, cinnamon, nut¬ 
megs, pepper, and terra japonica. South Ca¬ 
nara produces cocoa-nut, the calophyllum 
mophyllum, from the seed of which the com¬ 
mon lamp-oil is pressed out, terra japonica, 
and teak. In this section of the province 
oxen and buffaloes are valuable. Generally 
it is rocky, and covered with low woods. 
The people of the interior of the province 
belong to a caste bearing the local designa¬ 
tion of Buntar. The sea-coast is studded 
with villages of Brahmins. “ Between Telle- 
cheny and Onore there are five different 
nations, who, although mixed together from 
time immemorial, still preserve their distinct 
languages, character, and national spirit. 
These are the Nair3, the Coorga, the Tulavas, 
the Concanies, and the Canarese.” * The 
proportion of the different religions has been, 
thus estimated:—The Jains and Buddhists 
are few, the latter especially; the native 
Christians are in considerable numbers— 
one-fifth of the Mohammedan population, 
which is about one third of the Brahminical. 
The Brahmins of Canara are more tolerant 
to the Mohammedans than the latter are to 
them, or to any other sect; but both Brahmin 
and Mohammedan are intensely bigoted and 
superstitious—all honour, truth, and principle, 
seem to be expelled from the hearts of the 
people by their bigotry. The following is a 
curious exemplification of the way in which 
they sacrifice truth in matters of fact to their 
prejudices :—“ A Brahmin of Canara, who had 
written a narrative of the capture of Seringa- 
patam by General Harris, although he knew 
it happened on a Saturday, yet, because 
Saturday is an unlucky day, altered the date 
to Monday in his history.” f He was un- 
* Dubois. f BuchamiU. 








IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


120 


Chat. VI.] 

willing to let it appear that any prosperous 
event could happen on a day pronounced by 
Brahminical superstition to be unlucky, and, 
to save Brahminical credit, falsified the chro¬ 
nology. This circumstance shows how diffi¬ 
cult it is to rely on the truth or accuracy of 
native historians, or, indeed, of native wit¬ 
nesses to anything. 

The town of Carwar, about fifty-six miles 
south-east from Goa, is one of the most con¬ 
siderable in the province. Having early been 
the seat of an English factory, its trade was 
stimulated. The Jains were formerly pos¬ 
sessors of the land, and under their more 
sensible judgment of temporal affairs the 
neighbourhood flourished; hut they were ex¬ 
tirpated, or nearly so, by the Brahmins, who 
resorted to assassination, as well as open at¬ 
tack, to rid the country of the hated sectaries. 

The isle of Angediva (Andgadwipa) is about 
two miles from the coast; it is only a mile in 
circumference. 

Marjsow is in the northern section of the 
province. Some writers have described it as 
the ancient Meesiris, “ from whence they ex¬ 
ported a variety of silk stuffs, rich perfumes, 
tortoiseshells, different kinds of transparent 
gems, especially diamonds, and large quan¬ 
tities of pepper.” * Pepper is still abundant 
in that neighbourhood; all the precious ar¬ 
ticles have disappeared from its productions 
and its commerce, if ever they pertained to 
either, which is very questionable. Dr. 
ltobertson’s statements of this kind are fre¬ 
quently conjectures,having little basis in pro¬ 
bability. 

The seaport of Onore is a place of some 
little traffic; it was once an entrepdt of 
commerce. 

Along the sea coast, from Cavai to Urigara, 
South Canara,f a sept of Mohammedans, called 
Moplahs, reside, the interior being inhabited 
by the Nairs. The Nairs belong properly to 
no caste, although generally spoken of as a 
distjnct class, and are heathens, involved in 
utter darkness as to all religions. The Mop¬ 
lahs believe it a work of great merit in the 
eyes of the Prophet to catch a Nair, and cir¬ 
cumcise him by violence, if he will not become 
a proselyte to Mohammed by persuasion. 
The persecutions of the Moplahs were not 
confined to the timid and unresisting Nairs; 
Brahmins, Jains, and native Christians, en¬ 
dured the most brutal injuries at their hands. 
Their sanguinary propensities were carried 
out against Europeans also. This fanatical 
sept seems to exist under different names in 
different parts of India. At Malabar a sect 
of Mohammedans sprang iip, known in Europe 

* T)r. Robertson. 

t Southern Canara is also called Tulava. 

VOL. I. 


as Wahabees, and such as in Bengal is pro¬ 
fessed by the Ferazees of Dacca, Baraset, and 
Furreedpore. These men, forming themselves 
into a secret society, with branches, went 
out singly or in bands, murdered rich and 
peaceable Hindoos and others on religious 
grounds ; they then not unfrequently retired 
into some temple, and resisted the authorities 
until captured or slain, always selling their 
lives as dearly as they could, that as many 
as possible of the infidels might perish with 
them. The ordinary laws failed to put a 
stop to the murders thus perpetrated, and 
the administrators of the law were delicate of 
passing constitutional bounds, which would 
be regarded with jealousy at home; but 
the evil continued, and even increased, until 
a measure was enacted called “ the law of the 
suspect.” By this enactment all Dacoits and 
Moplahs under reasonable suspicion are ar¬ 
rested ; and if they resist the law their property 
is confiscated, and they are otherwise dealt 
with, so as to act upon the superstitions of the 
people, and detect the crime. 

In the south section of Canara the number 
of females born is much greater than that of 
males. In Southern India generally there is 
a similar disparity between the sexes, but it 
seems to obtain more in South Canara than 
elsewhere. 

In this division, also, in spite of the most 
•malignant persecutions on the part of both 
Brahmins and Mohammedans, the Jains con¬ 
tinue to maintain a considerable footing. 
They are more numerous here than anywhere 
else in the peninsula. They have two sorts 
of temples in South Canara; one is covered 
with a roof, the other open to the heavens. 
In the open temples images, of colossal size, 
representing a particular saint, are set up. 
At Carculla there is a very well formed image 
thirty-eight faet high, and ten feet in thick¬ 
ness, made from a block of granite; it is 
upwards of four hundred years old. 

Mangalore is a seaport of some prosperity ; 
it is beautifully situated. Ten miles up the 
river is the town of Areola, of some celebrity, 
where a colony of Concan Christians settled 
at the invitation of the Ikeri rajahs. 

Hossobetta is another seaport, but not of so 
much importance as Mangalore. It is remark¬ 
able as the residence of a very respectable 
class of persons, called Concanies—people de¬ 
scended from the natives of Concan. They 
fled to this neighbourhood from Goa, where 
they were persecuted by the Portuguese for 
their reluctance to embrace the teaching of 
the Jesuits, they professing an ancient type of 
oriental Christianity. 

Malabar, although not the most extensive 
collectorate of the Madras presidency, is the 

s 




130 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VI. 


most populous. It extends along the western 
coast from Cape Comorin to the river Chan- 
dragiri, about two hundred miles. Under the 
direction of the East India Company, Lieu¬ 
tenant Selby, of the Indian navy, surveyed 
the Malabar coast, 1849-51. He represents 
the navigation of the coast as dangerous, 
currents and hidden reefs exposing to con¬ 
stant peril, while frequent storms render this 
danger more formidable. Writing of the 
Byramgore reef, called Oheriapiri by the 
natives, and the Laccadive Islands, he says:— 

“The Laccadive islanders frequent these 
reefs to fish, which they catch in great quan¬ 
tities, and, with the coeua-nut, is their staple 
and almost only article of food. 

“Chitlac—the northern island of the Lacca¬ 
dive group, south end in latitude 11° 41' 
north, and longitude 72° 42' 30" east—is a 
low sandy island, covered with cocoa-nut 
trees, a mile and a half long, and nearly half 
a mile broad, and may be seen from a vessel’s 
deck ten miles. On the eastern side it is 
very steep too, there being no soundings two 
hundred yards off shore, but is surrounded on 
the western side with a barrier reef, off which 
a bank of soundings extends in places to a 
distance of nearly half a mile, gradually in¬ 
creasing from the edge of the reef to fifteen 
and twenty fathoms on edge of bank of 
soundings. Between the reef and island is 
a lagoon, into which, through a natural channel 
in the reef, their boats are taken, and where 
they are completely sheltered. The bottom, 
a fine sand, with coral patches. The best 
anchorage is off the south end of the island, 
in from seven to nine fathoms—coral rock 
about four hundred yards off shore. The 
rise and fall of tide we found to be seven feet 
high-water, full and change, at about ten hours. 
Chitlac contains a population of about five 
hundred inhabitants of the Moplah caste. Like 
all the inhabitants of this group, they are a very 
poor but inoffensive people, living entirely 
upon fish and cocoa-nut, the only produce of 
these islands, with a little rice, which they 
procure from the coast. They export to 
the Malabar coast large quantities of raw 
coir and coir-yarn. This is received from 
them by the collectors at Cannanore and 
Mangalore at a fixed rate. It is of a 
most excellent quality, and much better than 
that of Malabar. The rope made by the 
islanders is, for strength and durability, far 
superior to that which is produced on the 
coast. From having had the weight of the 
gale at north, this island must have been on 
the western extreme of the hurricane, which 
passed up the Malabar coast in April, 1847. 
It has, therefore, suffered comparatively little, 
when the ravages committed at Undewo, and 


others of the islands lying, more to the east¬ 
ward, are remembered. It lost only about 
six hundred trees, but this, on an island which 
counts about three thousand five hundred 
altogether, was seriously felt, and the inha¬ 
bitants gratefully remember the assistance 
rendered them by government at a time 
when, from the loss of some of their boats, 
they were in great distress. Water and 
supplies may be procured here in small 
quantities, and at a very cheap rate; and 
we invariably found the natives most civil 
and obliging. 

“ Riltan Island, south end in latitude 
11° 27' 30" north, and longitude 72° 59' 40" 
east, bears from Chitlac south-east \ east 
twenty miles. It is about two miles long by 
a quarter to half a mile broad, and, like 
Chitlac, has a barrier reef all round the 
western side, with good anchorage off both 
the northern and southern points of the 
island. Water may be procured here, and, 
indeed, at all the Laccadive Islands. As, 
however, it is merely the sea-water filtrated 
through the coral, it will not keep very long; 
it may, however, be used with safety, as we 
filled up both here and at Ameen, and found 
no ill effects resulting from its use. A few 
limes may also be obtained. With this ex¬ 
ception, it produces nothing but the cocoa- 
nut; and it is from this island and Chitlac 
that the best coir is procured, and it would 
perhaps be worthy the attention of govern¬ 
ment that, in a late trial made between the 
rope manufactured at these islands and that 
from the coast for the naval service, the one 
from the islands, both in strength and tex¬ 
ture, proved very far superior to the other. 
This island having been nearer by twenty 
miles to the centre of the hurricane of April, 
1847, than Chitlac, has suffered in a much 
greater degree, and the northern part of the 
island, where its violence was most felt, has 
been entirely denuded of trees and vegetation, 
and on the eastern side, a belt of about*one 
hundred and fifty yards broad,—by the whole 
length of the island of uprooted trees, and 
masses of coral rock, thrown up from the 
steep side of the island,—attests how great 
must have been the fury of the gale, and vio¬ 
lence of the waves. From a measurement 
which I took of some of these masses, I esti¬ 
mated their weight to be from one to two and 
a half tons, and many of them are now lying 
one hundred and fifty yards from the beach, 
left there by the receding waters. Two thou¬ 
sand trees are said to have been uprooted, 
and a channel of twenty yards in width, and 
ten feet deep, now remains to show where, on 
the gale decreasing, the sea, with which the 
island had been partially submerged, returned 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


181 


Chap. VI.] 

to its own level. In conclusion, I would only 
observe that, with respect to the characteristic 
features of this island, the remarks which I 
have offered on Chitlac, together with its in¬ 
habitants, their mode of life, &c., equally 
apply here. 

“ A succession of calms, and much bad 
weather, during the latter part of the season, 
prevented our surveying more of these islands 
than those I have described, but I have no 
doubt many other dangerous banks not known 
to us exist.” 

The Malabar shore is sandy, the plain of 
sand extending inland about three miles. 
The low hills which separate the level coun¬ 
try from the Western Ghauts are wooded 
and picturesque, irregularly disposed, and 
forming, by their groupings, valleys which are 
fertile and beautiful. The hills themselves 
are cultivated, the summits being generally 
level, although the acclivities are steep; but 
these are productive, and are often cultivated 
in terraces. The downs near the sea are 
gracefully sloped, and rich, bearing the cocoa- 
nut tree in perfection. The rivulets which 
wind around these hills, as they escape from 
the ghauts, are innumerable, irrigating the 
whole country, and in such a way as to re¬ 
fresh the atmosphere and conduce to salubrity. 
The palm-tree flourishes in the uplands. 
Black pepper is cultivated in large quantities 
for export. The land is private property, as 
in Canara, but held generally on more satis¬ 
factory terms by the cultivators. The origin 
of landed property in this province is lost in 
the obscurity of a remote antiquity. The 
moral condition of the heathen portion of the 
people is of the lowest description; among 
the Nairs, and even amongst natives of 
higher position, female virtue is almost un¬ 
known, and vice is systematised with public 
sanction and native law. 

There are more native Christians in Mala¬ 
bar than in any other part of India: very 
many of them belong to a primitive oriental 
church, and consider themselves to be the 
disciples of St. Thomas the Apostle. There 
are several sects who make this claim, but 
those professing the purest creed are fewest 
in number; they are supposed in the whole 
of Malabar to be about forty thousand per¬ 
sons. The Nestorian Christians are more 
numerous. The primitive sects of Christians 
in the w T hole province are supposed to be not 
less in number than a quarter of a million. 
The efforts of the Roman Catholic mission¬ 
aries to win over or to force these native 
Christians into the communion of the Church 
of Rome were unceasing during the influence 
of the Portuguese, and many were detached 
from the simpler worship of their fathers. 


The converts of the British Protestant mis¬ 
sionaries are considerable in number, and 
their success, especially in the department of 
education, is rapidly increasing. 

The Malabar villages are picturesque. The 
Brahmins reside chiefly in these villages: the 
females of this caste are considered here the 
most beautiful in India; they are elegant in 
manner and attire. The animals of this coast, 
of almost every species, are inferior. The 
province is well intersected by roads. 

Cooro is an ancient Hindoo principality 
situated in the Western Ghauts, and chiefly 
attached to the province of Malabar. The 
Cavery has its source in Coorg. In this 
region the people, although very uncivilised, 
are much fairer than those of the lower coun¬ 
tries : they are as fair as southern Europeans. 

On the Malabar coast there are several 
ports which are important for their commerce, 
or interesting historically as identified with 
various European settlements. Cannanore was 
formerly a Dutch settlement. Teflecherry, 
about one hundred and twenty-six miles from 
Seringapatam, was for a long time the chief 
settlement of the English on that coast, but 
it declined when the company transferred its 
settlement to Mahe ( mahi , a fish). 

Calicut is a sub-division of the Malabar 
province, and the chief residence of the 
Nairs. The word calico, a name given to 
cotton cloth, is derived from this place, for¬ 
merly so celebrated for its manufacture. The 
moral condition of' this district, like that of 
others where the Nairs predominate, is truly 
horrible. So perverted is the moral sense of 
the people, that it is deemed scandalous for a 
woman to have children by her own husband, 
with whom she never resides, always taking 
up her abode with her brother; her children 
are the offspring of various fathers. The 
Brahmins generally claim a numerous pro¬ 
geny. In the town of Calicut, which is the 
capital of the province, the people are chiefly 
Moplahs. This was a poted Portuguese set¬ 
tlement. 

CocpiN ( coch'Tii , a morass) is a native state 
in charge of a British resident under the 
Madras government. Description here is 
unnecessary. 

The collectorates of Bell ary andCuDDAPAH 
are amongst the most populous, bnt neither 
possesses features of such distinctive interest 
as to require separate notice. The diamond 
mines of Cuddapah have been worked for 
several hundred years; they are not very 
valuable, and the diamonds found are very 
small. They are always obtained in alluvial 
soil, or in connection with rocks of the most 
recent formation. 

I Coimbatore is a much less populous col- 



132 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VI, 


lectorate than either of the preceding. It is 
situated above the Eastern Ghauts, but is 
very unequal in its surface, which consists of 
a series of uplands and lowlands in great 
irregularity, generally contributing to its 
picturesqueness, although sometimes it is 
simply wild and rude. There is much waste 
land, which is quite valueless either to the 
government or the inhabitants, except that the 
latter annually let loose cattle upon its scanty 
herbage. The culture of the cultivated por¬ 
tions vies with that of other districts of 
India. Large and luxuriant rice fields, 
watered from immense reservoirs, may he 
seen in every direction where the land is not 
too elevated and rocky. There are several 
good towns in the province, as Coimbatore, 
Caroor, &c. 

Salem is a collectorate nearly of the same 
area and population as Coimbatore; its gene¬ 
ral character presents few features which 
entitle it to separate notice. 

The town and fortress of Ryacotta (Raya 
Cotay) is well situated, being the key of the 
Carnatic. The country around is very well 
cultivated, and the climate mild, the glass 
seldom rising beyond 80°. Cherry, and other 
English fruit trees that will not bear in 
the hot climate of southern India, flourish in 
this particular part. 

The town of Sautghur is also well situated, 
the rocky country around it being picturesque; 
some of the most splendid trees in southern 
India spring up from the rugged land. The 
tamarind and banyan-trees are of great age 
and size, rendering them objects of interest 
to botanists. The nabob of the Carnatic had, 
in the early part of the present century, an 
immense garden here, which, however, he 
farmed out to those who were willing to 
speculate in its produce. 

Several large collectorates of the Madras 
presidency are comprehended in what used to 
be called the Carnatic. The northern bound¬ 
ary commences at the southern limit of Gun- 
tore, and stretches thence to Cape Comorin— 
a distance of five hundred miles, the average 
breadth of the territory being about seventy- 
five miles. The Northern Carnatic extends 
from the river Pennar to the river Gunda- 
gama on the borders of Guntore. This was 
once a region over which powerful Indian 
princes reigned. The Central Carnatic ex¬ 
tends from the river Pennar to the Colaroone, 
containing the collectorate of Trichinopoly, 
and part of the collectorate of Nellore. It 
also contains the French settlement of Pon¬ 
dicherry, the presidential capital of Madras, 
and the collectorate of Arcot. The South 
Carnatic lies south of the river Colaroone. 
The British collectorate of Madura, and 


Tanjore, and part of Trichinopoly, are com¬ 
prised in this territory. The climate of the 
whole area of country comprehended under 
the European designation, “ the Carnatic,” is 
extremely hot—the hottest in India. It is, 
however, tempered by the sea breezes, and 
by the diversity of the country. 

The Carnatic is studded with heathen tem¬ 
ples, which are of large dimensions, with very 
little diversity of architecture; they are 
generally surrounded by high walls, as if 
it were intended to conceal the greater 
portion of the superstructures. Sometimes 
several temples exist in these enclosures. 
The religion is Brahminical, but Moham¬ 
medanism exists. The number of native 
Christians is increasing, and is probably not 
less than one hundred thousand. The people 
are inferior in physical qualities to the natives 
of Upper India. The industrial pursuits of 
the province are chiefly carried on by Sudras, 
and formerly slaves were the cultivators. 
The Brahmins disdain to hold the plough, or 
engage in any work requiring toil; they are 
clerks or messengers, assist in collecting the 
revenue, or are keepers of ( choultries ) way- 
side pilgrims’ houses, or resting-places for 
travellers. These choultries are generally 
very filthy, but not too much so for native 
taste; for in spite of their frequent ablutions, 
the population is not cleanly in its habits. 
The people take snuff, but, excepting some of 
the lower castes, who smoke cigars, tobacco 
smoking is deemed irreligious, and cigars 
would deprive the Brahmins of caste. Hin¬ 
doo customs are retained with great purity, 
even in the vicinage of the city of Madras. 
Fowls, which only Mohammedans would eat 
in Bengal, are in the Carnatic eaten by all 
castes and religionists. By the lower castes 
•asses are used; and some affirm that their 
milk is drank, and their flesh eaten, by one 
particular class, which is regarded as outcast. 
The white ant is a favourite article of food 
with them. 

Madras, the seat of government of Southern 
India, is situated in the Carnatic, on the 
shore of the Bay of Bengal, in latitude 13° 5' 
north, longitude 80° 21' east. The shore is 
here low and dangerous. Its Fort St. George, 
a place of considerable strength, may be 
easily defended by a small garrison. The 
population of Madras and its suburbs in 
1836—7 was upwards of four hundred thou¬ 
sand. Madras is eight hundred and seventy 
miles south-west of Calcutta, and six hundred 
and fifty south-east of Bombay. The popu¬ 
lation and extent of this city are supposed to 
be the greatest in India next to Calcutta, but 
Benares is alleged by many to have a more 
numerous population, as well as to cover a 






Chap. VI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


133 


greater area Madras is certainly the next city 
to Calcutta in political importance, although 
not in commercial enterprise or extent of 
commercial transactions. This deficiency 
arises from the ineligible site upon which the 
city stands—probably the most disadvan¬ 
tageous which any sea-hoard city could well 
occupy. Travellers and writers upon India 
are generally lavish in their censures upon 
the situation, and comparisons unfavourable 
to the English are drawn in reference to the 
selection of places for their settlements. The 
French are more especially commended at the 
expense of the British in this respect; but at 
the juncture of the English settlement of 
Madras there were weighty reasons, even of 
a commercial nature, which decided their 
choice. 

The landing of passengers at Madras is a 
matter of considerable difficulty, and attended 
with some danger. This will be presented 
more vividly to the reader by the actual ob¬ 
servation of modern travellers. One writer, 
well informed on India, thus describes the 
mode of landing at Madras, and the incon¬ 
venience of the site :—“ Landing at Madras 
is a service of danger. A tremendous surf 
rolls towards the shore, with so much force 
at certain seasons of the year, that if the 
greatest care were not taken by boatmen, 
their craft must inevitably be swamped. The 
passage between ships and the shore is effected 
in large barges, called Massoolali boats, rowed 
by three or four pairs of oars. They have 
awnings for the purpose of enclosing pas¬ 
sengers, who sit deep in the boat. As the 
boat approaches the land, the boatmen watch 
the roll of the waves, and, pulling as near to 
the shore as possible, leap out of the craft, 
and drag it high and dry before the next 
breaker can assail it. There is a class of 
vessel called the catamaran, which consists 
merely of a log or two of wood, across which 
the boatman, if he may so be called, sits, 
paddling himself to and fro. If he is cap¬ 
sized, an event which seldom can happen to 
his primitive vessel, he immediately scrambles 
on to the catamaran again, and resumes his 
work. These men, wearing conical caps, are 
very useful in conveying notes and parcels to 
passengers when communication by larger 
boats is impossible.” 

The commercial correspondent of the New 
York Herald gives the following description 
of the landing, and his general impressions of 
the place :—“ We anchored in Madras Roads, 
five days from Calcutta, nearly three of 'which 
were passed in getting by the Hoogly, seven 
hundred and seventy miles. Twenty-four 
hours at Madras is amply sufficient for the 
most enthusiastic traveller, unless he is desi¬ 


rous of making excursions to the interior or 
the other coast. At any rate, the time on 
shore was all that I required to disgust me 
with the port. The explorer, the surveyor, 
or nautical man, or whoever selected the 
harbour, should have his name painted on a 
shingle. Is it possible that no better anchor¬ 
age, no better landing-place, no better port, 
could he found along the coast? and if not, 
why was this place chosen ? A hundred years 
and more have passed away since then, and 
still you have the same facilities. An open 
roadstead, without the least point of land, or 
rock, or hill to shelter; no breakw-ater, no 
wffiarf, no pier, no floating-frame, not even a 
landing-stage. Huge native surf-boats, thirty 
feet long, and eight feet deep, by as many 
broad, the timbers hound together udth rope 
and string, without a nail, or holt, or spike, 
and manned by eleven naked savages, came 
alongside to take us ashore—no, I must not 
say naked, for there is an attempt at costume. 
You may, perhaps, better understand the dif¬ 
ference betwmen the Calcutta and the Madras 
boatman in that respect, wffien I mention that 
the former appears with a small white pocket- 
handkerchief round about him; the latter 
contents himself with a twine string. The 
day w T as perfectly calm, yet the surf washed 
over our boat once or twice, and ultimately 
the black, beggarly natives—I hate the sight 
of them!—took us on their shoulders to dry 
land. This is the only contrivance yet intro¬ 
duced for landing or embarking passengers. 
Our sex can manage it very -well, but I pity 
the women, who have to he carted round like 
so many hags of clothing. To order a supper 
at the Clarendon, and a carriage at the stable; 
to read the latest dates from England, and 
eat an ice-cream, occupied our time for an 
hour; and then we started off for a cruise, up 
one street, and down another; through dirty 
alleys and clean thoroughfares; visiting the 
jail, the parade-ground, the place of burning 
the dead, the railway-station, and the Ben- 
tinck monument; stopped a moment to wit¬ 
ness the exercises of a Hindoo school; hurried 
on to the depots, the market-place, and the 
cathedral; drove some four miles into the 
country, and returned in time to meet the 
carriages on their way to the fort, for on 
Friday evenings the hand holds forth. The 
fort was one of the first built in India. In 
1622 the ground w’as bought of a native 
prince, and Mr. F. Day claims the honour of 
erecting the fortress, then named and now 
known as Fort St. George. Here the French 
and the English crossed swmrds so often—both 
nations alternate masters. At tw T elve o’clock 
we fired our guns, and turned our backs upon 
Madras, a place too barren and cheerless for 



134 


HISTORY OP THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VI. 


even a penal settlement, not to mention it as 
the residence of a voluntary exile. I would 
rather he a clerk in England than the head 
of a department in Madras. Without their 
semi-monthly mail, life would be insupport¬ 
able. During the day of our departure we 
kept the coast in view, but saw nothing but 
the highlands and sandy plains at their base.” 
This description, as to general appearance, is 
more accurate than complimentary; it is, 
however, instructive to mark what the im¬ 
pressions are which intelligent men of other 
countries receive when they visit our settle¬ 
ments abroad. Perhaps it is especially so 
where our American cousins are the critics, 
as there is in their general tone and style 
great frankness—no wish to flatter us; and 
if there be some tokens of a desire to find 
fault, there is at all events a keen acumen, 
which enables them to discriminate our strong 
and weak points, and to seize vigorously the 
peculiarities actually exhibited by our govern¬ 
ment, commerce, or social life. 

The general situation of the town is com¬ 
manding, occupying the sea-shore. The 
houses are of white and yellow stucco, with 
verandahs and Venetian blinds. The sea- 
shell mortar of Madras makes an efficient and 
beautiful fronting, but is too dazzling in the 
vivid light of such a climate. This, taken in 
connection with the absence of shade, gives a 
glare to the appearance of the place most 
oppressive to the eye. The neighbourhood 
for a considerable distance is studded with 
tasteful private residences, which are built 
low, but of a pleasing and appropriate style 
of architecture. They are situated in what 
are called compounds, surrounded by pleasant 
gardens, and altogether picturesque and agree¬ 
able. Some of these dwellings are delightful, 
being overshadowed with luxuriant foliage, 
and surrounded by gardens producing every 
luxury of the tropics. 

The neighbourhood is well supplied with 
roads. One of these is very spacious and 
handsome; it is called the Mount Road, 
because leading to St. Thomas’s Mount. 

The most striking building is Fort St. 
George; although less spacious and imposing, 
as well as less important, than Fort William 
at Calcutta, it is more convenient, more easily 
garrisoned, and, on the whole, more efficient 
for its purposes. 

The government house is large, handsome, 
and impressive, with a great banqueting house 
attached, in which superb entertainments are 
frequently given by the governor. The gar¬ 
dens of the nabob formerly intercepted the 
view of the sea, and otherwise incommoded 
the site, but this inconvenience has been 
meliorated. 


The Madras club-bourse is commonly re¬ 
garded as the best building in the city. “It 
is a very extensive building, designed for the 
accommodation of a great number of persons, 
under admirable regulations, and at a mode¬ 
rate expense. It has entirely superseded the 
necessity for hotels; such as are to be found 
here are small, and miserably furnished and 
attended. A statue to Sir Thomas Munro, 
formerly governor of Madras, and two statues 
in honour of the Marquis Cornwallis, attract 
the attention of visitors; and those who are 
destined to remain at Madras soon become 
interested in the great number of useful and 
charitable institutions -with which the town 
abounds. Among these are the Madras Col¬ 
lege, the Medical College {which contains one 
hundred and twenty pupils), the Orphan 
Asylum, the Mission, Charity, and Free 
Schools, the Philanthropic and Temperance 
Associations, the Masonic Lodges, the Mo- 
neygar Choultry (a species of serai), the 
private seminaries, the institutions for the 
education of native females, &c. The churches 
are numerous at Madras; several excellent 
newspapers are published; and there are large 
establishments or shops, where everything 
that humanity, in its most civilised state, can 
require is to be had for the money. The 
prices at which the productions of Europe are 
sold are by no means high, considering the 
expense of carriage to India, warehousing, 
insurance, establishment, the interest of money, 
&e. Very large fortunes are made in trade 
in Madras; and it is remarkable that, while 
Calcutta has experienced a great many vicis¬ 
situdes, some of which have scattered ruin 
and desolation throughout society, the Madras 
houses of business, by a steadier system, have 
remained unscathed.” * 

The representations made in the foregoing 
extract as to the cheapness of the place are 
not generally borne out by other travellers. 
Calcutta is a better market both as to variety 
of supply and the quality and price of com¬ 
modities. This may partly arise from the 
commercial competition which is so fiercely 
maintained in the great Indian metropolis, 
but it is partly to be attributed to superior 
local advantages. Fuel is much more plen¬ 
tiful in the capital of Bengal than in that of 
Southern India. Except for cooking or for 
steam, it is but little required in either place— 
less at Madras than Calcutta. 

The Black Town stands to the north of the 
fort, from which it is separated hy a spacious 
esplanade. It is less wretched than the 
native portion of Calcutta. 

Rather more than five miles on the 
road leading from Fort St. George to St. 

* Captain Stocqueler. 




CHAr. VI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


135 


Thomas’s Mount, there is a cenotaph, erected 
to the memory of the celebrated nobleman, 
the Marquis Cornwallis. The drive to that 
place is very agreeable, the road being 
“ smooth as a bowling green,” and planted on 
either side with white tulip-trees and the 
luxuriant banyan. It is customary for the 
fashionable portion of Madras society to drive 
out to the cenotaph and around it in the cool 
of the evening, and much social intercourse 
takes place on those occasions. Mid-day is 
too hot for persons to appear out of doors, 
except as necessity may dictate, and the fore¬ 
noon is much occupied in visits from house to 
house. 

The country around Madras, although not 
devoid of a certain picturesque effect, is sterile 
and uninviting. Good rice crops are obtained 
when the season is blessed with abundance of 
rain. The cattle are of the species common 
in the Deccan—small, but better than those 
reared in the southern portions of the Bengal 
presidency. The buffaloes are smaller than 
those of the last-named province, but are 
strong, and draw well in carts, for which 
purpose they are extensively used. 

An observer would be necessarily struck 
with the apparent encroachment of the sea on 
the Madras shore, but nature has provided 
against this by the sand-binding plants which 
abound, and fix the loose soil along the shore. 
About two years ago the military board had 
its attention directed to the encroachments 
of the tide, and gave orders to have the con¬ 
dition of the south beach examined between 
the saluting battery and St. Thome; and the 
report was interesting, as showing the pro¬ 
cesses of these plants in retarding the advance 
of the ever-surging sea. The roots and stems 
of that class of shore-grown weeds shoot out 
in quest of nourishment to a great extent, and 
in doing so become interlaced, so as to form a 
sort of basket-work, by which the sand is 
held up as a barrier against the waters. “ If 
it were not for the subterranean stems of these 
sea-side plants, which can vegetate amidst 
dry and shifting sand, the banks which man 
heaps up as a barrier would be blown away 
by the first hurricane.” * This subject has 
been since more investigated, and it appears 
that the encroachments of the ocean on some 
portions of the Madras beach arise from the 
fact of these sand-binders, especially the ground 
rattan , being burnt by the fishermen, as the 
weed impedes the spreading of their nets, 
and the spiny leaves injure their naked feet.j" 
It is proposed to plant other specimens less 
objectionable to the men who fish on the 

* Hugh Clegliorn, M.D. 

f Journal erf the Agricultural and Horticultural So¬ 
ciety of India. 


coasts, and equally capable of resisting the 
landward wave. 

In the domestic life of the people of Madras 
they are well supplied with servants—the 
men being generally Hindoos, the women 
native Portuguese. 

The French from Pondicherry frequently 
visit Madras with fancy-work, displaying the 
taste of the lapidary, jeweller, and artificial 
flower-maker. Mohammedan pedlars offer 
tempting bargains of moco stones, petrified 
tamarind wood, garnets, coral, mock amber, 
and trinkets, which are sometimes curious and 
valuable, and often meretricious. 

The collectorate of Nellore is noticeable 
for the manufacture of salt. The town of 
Nellore is only remarkable for the frequent 
and obstinate defences which it has made. 
It is related by an old writer,* that in 1787 
a peasant, while guiding his plough, was ob¬ 
structed by a portion of brick, and digging 
down, discovered the ruins of a temple, and 
beneath them a pot of gold coins of the 
Roman emperors. Most of these were sold 
by him, and melted, but some were reserved, 
and proved to be of the purest gold; 
many of them were fresh and beautiful, but, 
others were defaced and perforated, as if they 
had been worn as ornaments. They were 
mostly of the reigns of Trajan, Adrian, and 
Faustimas. 

The collectorate of North Arcot was once 
famous for its Mohammedan influence, espe¬ 
cially its Mussulman capital, bearing the same 
name, and the fortress of Chandgherry (Chan- 
draghiri), built on the summit of a stupendous 
rock, with a fortified city beneath. 

One of the most remarkable places in Arcot, 
the Carnatic, or, indeed, the Madras presi¬ 
dency, is Tripetty. The most celebrated 
Hindoo temple south of the Kistna River is 
at that place. It is erected in an elevated 
basin, completely surrounded by hills; and it 
is alleged that neither Mussulman nor Chris¬ 
tian feet have ever profaned the inner circle 
of these hills. The Brahmins secured this im¬ 
munity by paying to their Mohammedan, and 
afterwards to their European rulers, a certain 
portion of the revenue derived from the ido¬ 
latrous worship and pilgrimages to the holy 
place; for although both the Mohammedan 
conquerors of India and British Christians are 
decided iconoclasts, yet both found it possible 
to reconcile conscience to the receipt of such 
a tax. In 1758 the revenue thus derived 
by the government amounted to £30,000 
sterling. Since then it considerably declined, 
and in 1811 was not quite £20,000 sterling; 
it afterwards fluctuated, but never attained 
the magnitude of its earlier years. Vast 
* Orme. 





HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chat. VI. 


136 

numbers of pilgrims visit the place from most 
parts of India, bringing offerings of every 
conceivable character — animals of various 
species, horses, cows, buffaloes, and elephants ; 
fruits, grain, silk, calico; gold, silver, and 
jewels; exquisitely wrought garments, and 
ornaments of the precious metals, &c. Even 
tribute is paid to the idols from regions as far 
as Gujerat. The deity presiding is supposed 
to be propitious to commerce when duly 
honoured. Several thousands of sacred per¬ 
sons are supported in luxury, and a crowd of 
artificers, labourers, and servants, by the 
offerings presented. The impostures prac¬ 
tised are as shameless as the ceremonies of 
the religious services are reported to be absurd 
and vile. 

South Arcot differs little in character 
from the collectorate just described. In it 
the French settlement of Pondicherry is pro¬ 
perly comprised, but not being a portion of 
British India, wfill not be described here. 

Chingleput is the smallest and least popu¬ 
lous collectorate in the Madras presidency ; it 
is also the most ancient possession of the 
company in the Carnatic. To the north it is 
bounded by the Nellore district; on the 
south, by the southern collectorate of Arcot; 
on the east, by the Bay of Bengal; and on 
the west, by Northern and Southern Arcot. 
The soil is generally hard and ungrateful; 
low prickly bushes cover a large area, and 
huge crags of granite project in the fields, 
around which cultivation is carried. The 
palmyra grows well upon this soil, which is 
too dry to produce rice or good cereal crops. 
The wild date flourishes in some places. The 
whole district was formerly known by the 
name of the Jaghire. 

In this collectorate the city of Conjeveram 
( cauchipura , the golden city) is of some inte¬ 
rest. It is not fifty miles from Madras. This 
town is built in a valley of six or seven miles 
in extent. The whole valley is populous. 
The city itself also contains a considerable 
population. The streets are broad, and well 
constructed, unlike the native cities of Central, 
Northern, and North-western India. Planted 
with cocoa-nut trees and bastard cedars, shade 
is afforded, which is refreshing in the bright 
hot climate. An air of beauty and taste is 
also imparted, especially as the width of the 
streets gives space for the trees to flourish. 
The streets cross one another at right angles, 
so that from the places of intersection the 
long rows of cocoa-nut trees and cedars pre¬ 
sent a beautiful aspect, such as few cities can 
boast. Round the whole town is a bound 
hedge, formed chiefly of the Ogave Americana. 
The small river Wagawattv winds round the 
western portion of the town, adding to its 


beauty, while it conduces to the fertility of 
the whole vale. Formerly this town was 
noted for its manufactures : the weavers were 
reputed for their skill and taste all over 
Southern India. Cloths adapted to native 
wear, turbans, and red India handkerchiefs, 
were here made for many years, but British 
imports at Madras have nearly extinguished 
the native manufacturers of Conjeveram. The 
great pagoda is of some celebrity, resembling 
that of Tanjore. On the left, upon entering, 
there is a large edifice, like a “ choultry,” 
which is said to contain a thousand pillars.' 
Hindoo deities are wrought upon them with 
artistic effect; some of the pillars are covered 
with this description of work. The sides of 
the steps leading up to it are formed by tw T o 
large elephants drawing a car. The second 
court is held in such superior sanctity, that 
Europeans or native dissidents from Brah- 
minism are not permitted to enter it. From 
the top of the great gateway the view is ex¬ 
ceedingly beautiful—wood and water, hill 
and vale, the city and landscape, are spread 
out before the eye, and in the background a 
range of stupendous mountains bound the 
scene. 

The town of St. Thome is situated within 
three miles of Madras, in a fine plain, the sea 
washing up into a bay, at the head of which 
the place is built. The plain behind the 
town is covered with cocoa-nut trees, which 
retain their verdure throughout the year. 
The inhabitants are Hindoos and Roman 
Catholics. There are also Nestorians and 
Chaldean Christians, who were formerly 
numerous, but decreased under the persecu¬ 
tions of the Portuguese. The Roman Ca¬ 
tholic portion of the population is descended 
from intermarriages of the natives and Por¬ 
tuguese settlers, and are blacker in complexion 
than any other class of the inhabitants. The 
Hindoos call the town Mailapuram, or the 
city of peacocks. This little town has been 
rendered remarkable in connection with its 
frequent change of masters. The English 
captured it in consequence of the Roman 
Catholic priests and people having given 
secret information of their movements to the 
French at Pondicherry.* 1 This occurred in 
1749, since which time it has remained in 
possession of the English. 

Mahabalipuram is a ruined town of great 
antiquity, thirty-five miles south of Madras, 
on the coast. The name means the city of 
the great Bali, who was very famous in Hin¬ 
doo tales. The town is also called “ the 
seven pagodas;” there are not now that 
number there, but probably w T ere wdien it 
obtained that designation. The Brahmins 
* Onne. 



Chap. VI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


137 


say that the sea now covers the ancient site 
of Mahabalipuram, which all native tradition 
represents to have been a city of vast extent 
and grandeur. The remains at present there 
are most carious, affording to the beholder 
the idea of a petrified town. A large rock- 
hill is covered with Hindoo inscriptions re¬ 
presenting the stories of the Maha Bharrat. 
Near the sea there is an isolated rock of enor¬ 
mous dimensions, out of which a pagoda has 
been cut; the outside is covered with basso- 
relievo sculptures. On ascending the hill, 
there is a temple cut out of the rock, upon the 
walls of which are idols, also in basso-relievo. 
On another portion of this vast hill of rock, 
there is an immense figure, representing 
Vishnu asleep on a bed, with a large snake * 
wound round in many coils as a pillow. All 
the figures are hewn in the rock. A mile 
and a half to the southward of this hill are 
two pagodas, cut in the solid rock, each con¬ 
sisting of one single stone. Near to them is 
the figure of an elephant as large as life, and 
of a lion larger than the natural size. Mr. 
Hamilton, quoting Lord Valentia, says that 
the whole appear to have been rent by some 
convulsion of nature before the work of the 
contractors was entirely finished. In the 
same neighbourhood, nearer to the sea by 
about one hundred and fifty yards, is “ a pa¬ 
goda, upon which is the lingam, and dedicated 
to Siva.” 

Tanjore is a collectorate in which, although 
the extent is not comparatively great, the 
population is very numerous. Malabar, Cud- 
dapah, and Bellary, of all the Madras collec- 
torates, only contain a population of such 
numbers, and these exceed it by very little; 
it may even be doubted whether they do ex¬ 
ceed it in the numbers of their inhabitants. It 
is extremely well cultivated, and yields in 
abundance all the productions of Southern 
India. It is remarkable for the number of 
its heathen temples, and their rich endow¬ 
ments ; notwithstanding which, the British 
government contributed largely for the sup¬ 
port of heathenism in the district! Indeed, 
wherever heathenism is rich and influential, 
there the largest endowments have been given 
by tbe government! This province was also 
remarkable for the number of its Suttees. 

Tanjore is the capital. It is notable as 
containing a pagoda, which is regarded as the 
finest specimen of pyramidical architecture in 
India. Within this pyramid is the celebrated 
black bull, carved from a block of marble, and 
admirably executed. From one of the cava¬ 
liers a splendid prospect is afforded; the town, 
temples, pagodas, forts, rice-fields, woods, and 
lofty mountains, form a rich landscape. 

* The many-headed serpent Amantis, or Eternity. 

von. i. 


Combooconum is a town about twenty - 
three miles from Tanjore; it was the capital 
of the. ancient Chola dynasty, and numerous 
remains attest its pristine splendour. Tem¬ 
ples and pagodas are numerous, and the 
Brahmins make it one of the centres of their 
influence. There is a lake which, in Brahmin 
esteem, is composed of holy water; its virtues 
are always great, but every twelfth year it is 
supposed to overflow with healing and sanc¬ 
tifying efficacy, curing diseases, and washing 
sinners from the stains and defilements of all 
previous transmigrations. As may be con¬ 
ceived, when the periods of extraordinary 
efficacy occurs, multitudes of the diseased 
and conscience-stricken press thither in the 
hope of relief from its waters; and great 
numbers go away so free from sin in their 
own opinions, that they can with the less 
peril incur a very large amount to their 
future discredit, until the lake of expiation is 
again sought for its purification. 

The town of Tranquebar is well known to 
Europeans, as having been a prosperous 
Danish settlement, until it was wrested from 
that power by the hand of England. It 
would appear that it was better governed by 
the Danes than it has ever since been. It is 
about one hundred and fifty miles from 
Madras. 

The collectorate of Trichinopoly does not 
need especial description. The island of Serin- 
gham, in the river Cavery, is very remarkable 
for its sacred buildings.* The Seringham 
pagoda is composed of seven square enclo¬ 
sures, the walls of which are twenty-five feet 
high, and four thick. These enclosures are 
three hundred and sixty feet distant from 
each other, and each has four large gates, 
with a high tower, which are placed in the 
middle of each side of the enclosure, and 
opposite to the four cardinal points. The 
outward wall is nearly four miles in circum¬ 
ference; and its gateway to the south is orna¬ 
mented with pillars, several of which are 
single stones, thirty-three feet long, and five 
feet in diameter. Those which form the roof 
are still larger. In the innermost enclosures 
are the chapels. There is another pagoda of 
less importance in the island. The Brahmins 
are numerous and rich^ and live in the greatest 
voluptuousness. 

Madura collectorate does not require a 
separate notice. The city of the same name, 
and capital of the collectorate, is mean, 
filthy, miserable, and unhealthy, lying low as 
compared with the surrounding country: it 
is, however, noted for its temple, called 
Pahlary, consecrated to the god Velleyadah. 
To this god the worshippers bring singular 
* Orme. 


T 



133 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VII. 


offerings, consisting of immense leather shoes, 
often profusely ornamented in the oriental 
style of slipper decoration. The explanation 
is, that the deity is always out hunting, and, 
as the jungles abounding in the neighbour¬ 
hood might hurt his feet, his admiring dis¬ 
ciples present him with these appropriate 
gifts. This place is about three hundred 
miles from Madras. 

Opposite the coast between it and the 
Island of Ceylon is the sacred Isle of Rames- 
seram ( Rameswaram , the Pillar of Ram). 
This island is about eleven miles long and 
six broad.* A very celebrated pagoda, al¬ 
leged to be of remote antiquity, has its site on 
the island. The entrance is by a lofty gate¬ 
way, one hundred feet high, covered with 
carved work to the summit. The door is 
forty feet high, consisting of perpendicular 
stones, with horizontal stones of a similar 
description, the style resembling what is 
termed the Cyclopean. The square of the 
whole is about six hundred feet, and it has 
been regarded as one of the finest structures 
of the kind in India.f A large revenue is 
derived from what the worshippers of the 


idol call his drink. This consists of the 
water of the Ganges, which is brought this 
great distance at considerable expense, and 
is poured over him every morning; but the 
cost is sustained, and great profit acquired, 
by selling this water to devout persons. The 
sacred isle is guarded by a family named the 
Pandaram, the males of which are celibates, 
the succession of guardians being found in 
the descendants of its female members. 

The collectorate of Tinnivelly may be 
briefly described. The coast is remarkable 
only for its salt marshes. The interior is 
picturesque, and the climate peculiar, formed 
by the positions of the hills, and the exposure 
of the land, over a considerable extent, to 
both monsoons. 

The remaining portions of the Madras 
presidency, with its non-regulation provinces, 
are so much in character with the collec- 
torates described, as not to require any dis¬ 
tinct notice; especially as places thus passed 
over have sometimes an historic interest con¬ 
nected with the progress of British conquest, 
which will bring them again upon the pages 
of this History. 


CHAPTER VII. 

DISTRICTS AND CITIES—THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY. 


In the last chapter the portion of India his¬ 
torically known as the Deccan received a 
general description: a small portion of it 
belonging to Bengal, a larger portion to 
Madras, and a still greater extent of its terri¬ 
tory included in Bombay, it appeared expe¬ 
dient to define and describe that region 
before giving a detailed account of the 
Madras and Bombay presidencies, as in the 
historical portion of the work frequent men¬ 
tion must be made of the Deccan. On page 
27, the collectorates and non-regulation pro¬ 
vinces into which Bombay is divided for 
purposes of government are named. It is 
the smallest of the three presidencies, nor has 
it many large towns or cities. The principal 
seaports are Surat, Baroch, Cambay, Bhaw- 
nuggur, Gogo, Poorbunder, and Mandavie, in 
Cutch. From these thfe best seamen of India 
are procured, especially along the west side 
of the Gulf of Cambay. The small islands 
of Salsette and Oorum, and the little strip of 
land attached to Forts Victoria and Vingula, 
in the Concan, furnish native vessels and 
native sailors of superior quality. The only 
naval force in the possession of the East 
India Company is stationed at Bombay— 
* Ward. j Lord Valenlia. 


partly from the facility of obtaining naval 
supplies there in men and material, and 
partly from the influence of a navy in the 
Arabian Sea. It is watered by the Yerbud- 
dah, Tapty, Mahee, Mahindry, and various 
smaller rivers, which empty themselves into 
the Gulf of Cambay and the Indian Ocean. 
The Indus also flows through the non-regu¬ 
lation province of Scinde, where its mouths 
discharge its voluminous waters into the sea. 
The commerce of Bombay is very consider¬ 
able with Arabia, and up the Sea of Oman 
and the Persian Gulf. The military stations 
are Ahmedabad, Ahmednuggur, Asserghur, 
Balmeer, Baroda, Belgaum, Baroch, BKoog, 
Bombay, Dapoodie, Darwbar, Deeza, Duru- 
ganam, Hyderabad, Hursole, Kadra, Kirkee, 
Kurrachee, Kulladghee, Malligaum, Lackhann, 
Bukkur, Poonah, Ranjcote, Sattara, Surat, 
Seroer, Shikapore. 

The capital of the presidency is the city of 
Bombay: it is situated on a rocky island 
lying on the west coast of Hindoostan, in lati¬ 
tude 18 J 56' north, and longitude 72° 57' east. 
There were originally some hilly islets, but 
these, by the influence of the high tides, have 
been joined to each other, and now the island 
is composed principally of two unequal ranges 





IN INDIA AND THE EAST 


139 


Chap. VII.] 

of whinstone rocks, extending from five to 
eight miles in length, and at the distance of 
about three miles from each other. Bombay 
is the most unhealthy of the presidencies. 
The. Fort of Bombay is situated at the south¬ 
east extremity of the island, on a narrow neck 
of land. Cotton is the principal article of 
export. The population is about two hundred 
and fifty thousand, composed of Christians, 
Jews, Mohammedans, Hindoos, and Parsees. 
Bombay is one thousand and forty miles west 
by south of Calcutta, and six hundred and 
twenty-five from Madras. The electric tele¬ 
graph is complete to Madras, Calcutta, and 
Lahore. As a great centre of telegraphic and 
railway communication, Bombay is likely to 
hold an important place in the future of India. 
In an amusing hut useful work, entitled 
Young America Abroad, the following opi¬ 
nions are given on this subject:—“ You will 
be surprised to learn that India, during the 
last two years, bids fair to keep pace with 
the United States in the magnetic wire. Dr. 
O’Shaughnessy is the Professor Morse of 
India. With the powerful machinery at his 
command as a servant of the company, he 
has distinguished himself by his energy and 
his works. I am glad to find him a fellow- 
passenger en route for home, with a view of 
running the wire from England to India—an 
undertaking which, no doubt, will shortly be 
accomplished, judging from what has been 
done. The first wire, he tells me, was ex¬ 
tended November 1st, 1853. Twenty par¬ 
ties of workmen (soldiers) left Calcutta and 
Bombay, under English leaders, and in March, 
1854, the offices were opened at the half-way 
station of Agra; and, by the middle of June, 
the first message went through to Bombay, a 
distance of sixteen hundred miles; since which 
lines have been established from Bombay to 
Madras, eight hundred miles; from Agra to 
Peshawur, on the borders of Affghanistan, 
connecting the populous cities of Delhi, 
Lahore, and Attock, on the Indus, some 
eight hundred miles; besides a line, two 
hundred miles, from Rangoon to Prome and 
Meaday, connecting the seaport with the 
frontier of Ava; and other smaller lines, 
making a total of some four thousand miles 
in two years’ time. In less than five years 
ten thousand miles of electric wire will con¬ 
nect the chief points of the Indian empire, 
says the doctor. No. 1 galvinised -wire, about 
half a mile to the ton, would give an aggre¬ 
gate of two thousand tons. The original 
posts were made of cheap wood, but subse¬ 
quently iron-wood from Birmah, solid granite 
posts, hrick-and-mortar doors, and iron screw 
posts are those used; the cost is about two 
hundred and fifty dollars per mile. The wires 


are about sixteen feet from the ground, suffi¬ 
ciently high to allow a loaded elephant to 
pass under. About thirty miles of submarine 
wires, costing one thousand dollars per mile, 
have been laid down across the rivers. About 
three hundred manipulators are employed, 
and two hundred more servants, making a 
staff of five hundred men. There are seventy 
offices already erected, in charge of Europeans 
and half-castes. The great difficulty, how¬ 
ever, has been in procuring proper workmen; 
and Dr. O’Shaughnessy purposes visiting the 
States before returning to India, in order to 
procure a staff of American managers. There 
are no double lines laid down, nor will there 
be. The annual cost of the establishment is 
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The 
only paying line will be that between Bombay 
and Calcutta, where one-third of the despatches 
are sent by natives. The object of the go¬ 
vernment in establishing such an agency 
throughout their wide extent of empire is, of 
course, to increase their political and military 
power, for the enterprise as an investment 
would prove disastrous. An instance of its 
advantage was noticed at the recent annexa¬ 
tion of Oude. A few hours after the despatch 
arrived from the home government, giving 
consent, the council met, troops were on the 
way, orders were given, and Oude was a part 
of the British empire—all done by the light¬ 
ning’s flash. In times of war it must be of 
vast importance, until the native enemies 
learn to cut the wire, as speculators did when 
the Ounard steamers touched at Halifax. 
Railways do not progress so rapidly, yet 
something has been done in that way; and a 
guarantee of five per cent, interest on the 
outlay for the enterprise is made by the 
honourable company; but who iB to make up 
the loss between the annual expenditure and 
the annual receipts ? for profit and loss will be 
charged for many years with a serious ba¬ 
lance. R. M. Stephenson, the railway king 
of India, is also a fellow-passenger for Eng¬ 
land. His perseverance, his untiring industry 
in the accomplishment of so arduous an enter¬ 
prise, has won for him a public address. In 
his reply he shows how sanguine he is of the 
progress of his pet projects, for he expects 
that in less than ten years England may be 
reached in twelve days’ time, and the mag¬ 
netic wire communicate with the mother- 
country in as many hours. I shall not be 
surprised at the latter result, but the former 
appears formidable; for Asiatic, African, and 
European soil does not cultivate activity as 
does the American. The railway from Cal¬ 
cutta to Raneegunge, or to the Burdwan 
coal-mines, is one hundred and twenty-one 
miles—a single rail, costing about fifty thou- 



140 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VII. 


sand dollars per mile. A company has been 
formed to connect Madras with the opposite 
coast, a distance of three hundred miles, 
passing through Wellington’s and Brand’s 
battle-fields, vid Arcot and Seringapatam 
(branching out to Bangalore), on to Trichi - 
nopoly and Coimbatore on the Malabar coast 
—thus connecting the great cities of Southern 
India. On the other side, the Bombay, 
Baroda, and Central Indian Railway, and 
the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, ex¬ 
tend their branches some distance along the 
shore and inland. Another line is intended 
to join Bombay with the Madras frontier, 
vid Belgaum, Sattara, Toona, &c.—from 
Kurrachee to the Indus about one hun¬ 
dred and twenty miles, and a section from 
Bombay, two hundred miles to Surat. This 
is the grand trunk line of the north-west, 
and is to extend to Lahore, a distance from 
Calcutta of thirteen hundred and fifty miles. 
Contracts already have been made as far as 
Agra. Railway enterprise in India com¬ 
mands much praise for its projectors, for 
many are the impediments to be overcome. 
As in England and America, those in the 
front rank will sink their money, making 
room for those who follow later on, to 
profit by other’s losses. But, neverthe¬ 
less, the steam-whistle must work a moral 
change in India.” Since this was written, 
some of the writer’s anticipations have been 
fulfilled. 

The buildings in Bombay are not so fine 
as those in Calcutta and Madras. The private 
houses are also inferior in general aspect, but 
formed more in keeping with the climate, 
both as to style and utility. The European 
inhabitants are fond of residing at some dis¬ 
tance from the business part of the town, as 
they are at Madras, which, in each case, com¬ 
pels them to repair to the fort for the transac¬ 
tion of business. This, however, is becoming 
less the case, and the commercial arrangements 
of Bombay are as rapidly improving as its poli¬ 
tical position. The harbour scenery is very 
fine: Mr. Hamilton, thirty years ago, noticed 
this in his description. Mrs. Postans, in her 
lively little volume on Western India, many 
years after, expressed in graceful terms her 
admiration of it. Many modern writers have 
followed in their wake, and few have exag¬ 
gerated the claims of Bombay in this respect, 
although some have gone so far as to call it 
“ the most lovely in the world,” and to describe 
the island on which the city stands as the 
fairest of all 

“ The isles that gem 
Old Ocean’s purple diadem.” 

It is certainly very lovely, the azure above, 
reflected in the wave below, the bright Indian 


sun shedding its glory over sky and sea, con¬ 
stitute a magnificent prospect from the veran¬ 
dahs of the inhabitants whose houses com¬ 
mand the view. The harbour is dotted with 
palm isles, and the contrast of their green 
feathery foliage with the bright blue water* is 
strikingly picturesque. In the distance the 
ghauts tower to the heavens, presenting all 
imaginable forms, and covered with all ima¬ 
ginable hues; in one direction tinged with 
the crimson sunset, in another as if clothed in 
a pale purple robe, elsewhere hung with 
fleecy drapery; and all these ever changing 
as day dawns or sets, as it pours its burning 
noon upon the gleaming rock, or as deep 
shadows sink upon them with the descending 
night. Heber, with his soft poetic pencil, 
has impressed the images of these scenes 
upon his pages, so as no eye that has rested 
upon them can ever forget. The island of 
Elephanta and the • island of Salsette are 
covered with beautiful trees, which extend 
their boughs over the rippling waters, pre¬ 
senting every variety of graceful form, and of 
tint, such as oriental foliage only can exhibit. 
Yachting being a favourite amusement, pretty 
pleasure boats may be seen gliding among 
“ the palm-tasselled islets;” so that amidst 
the prospects of soft beauty, and in view of 
the glorious mountain distance, tokens of 
human life and pleasure are perpetually indi¬ 
cated, adding that peculiar charm which soli¬ 
tary scenery, however fine, cannot impart. 
From the harbour the appearance of the city 
is not attractive; it lies too low, the new 
town being lower than the old, most of the 
houses having their foundations on the sea 
level, and many still lower. The walls of the 
fort flank the water’s edge, and first strikes 
the eye of the beholder; then the esplanade, 
with its clusters of tents; and, stretching away 
to the west the island of Colabah, covered 
with palm-trees, and having the lighthouse at 
its extreme point. The landing-places are 
called bundaks in Bombay, and their neigh¬ 
bourhood is generally crowded with boats of 
different styles—some diminutive craft, filled 
with cocoa nuts for the market; others stronger, 
used for conveying goods or passengers to 
and from the shipping; small barges, covered 
with awnings, the property of native mer¬ 
chants and bankers ; and pleasure-boats, taste¬ 
fully fitted up with cabins and Venetians, to 
carry parties on picnics, or other pleasure 
expeditions. 

On shore, the first thing arresting attention 
i3 the palankeens, gaudily painted, and with 
silk hangings, in which the passenger is con¬ 
veyed to his destination. Crowds of coolies 
and runners infest the landing-places; these 
men are dirty, half naked, with savage expres- 




Ctiap. VII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


Ill 


sions of countenance; they speak a little 
English, and offer to perform any service, in 
discharging which they are dishonest and 
faithless This vile crew is generally com¬ 
posed of Mohammedans, and they look upon 
Christians as fair game to be plundered, if that 
can be accomplished with any chance of impu¬ 
nity. The moment the traveller lands, he per¬ 
ceives that he is in a great commercial city; the 
signs of active business immediately surround 
him; bales of cotton especially attest that Bom¬ 
bay is the great emporium of that commodity. 

The road to the city is very fine, and 
commands a good sea-view, which makes 
it a pleasant promenade, where refresh¬ 
ing breezes play upon the heated frame, 
and the soft sea views delight the eye. Every 
evening this road is thronged with carriages 
and cavaliers, gay ladies and rich natives, the 
sober-looking Parsee and the respectable 
Armenian being always conspicuous figures. 
Railed off from this road by a slight paling 
is an extensive lawn-like space, where the 
Parsees, Jews, and other orientals are fond of 
meeting to converse. This numbers of them 
will do while the road is covered with gay 
carriages, and European costumes, and even 
when the military bands attract the English 
around them. The Persians and Parsees 
seem generally to avoid one another as much 
as their respective interests will allow; nor 
do the Arabs, or native Mussulmen, like the 
Parsees, who are the most respectable orient¬ 
als, except the Armenian Christians, in Bom¬ 
bay. In the morning and evening the Parsees 
are fond of assembling on the esplanade and 
looking to their “ fiery god,” as he rises from 
the horizon, or sinks beneath it. They bring 
their children on these occasions to learn the 
devout worship of their fathers, but the ladies 
do not accompany them. There is a fine 
statue of the Marquis of Wellesley, executed 
by Chantrey, placed in the centre of a cause¬ 
way leading from the esplanade to the fort-, 
which is much admired. It is customary in 
the hot season to erect bungalows by the 
esplanade, so as to obtain the cool sea breeze; 
these are light temporary dwellings, but cost 
from sixty to eighty pounds for the season. 
They are fitted up with exquisite taste, and 
are most delightful residences. When the 
rude monsoons beat upon Bombay, the Euro¬ 
peans seek the shelter of solid buildings; but 
house rent is expensive, obliging persons of 
limited means to retire several miles from the 
port into the country among the cocoa-nut 
woods—dwelling places more picturesque than 
healthy, where fever and insects infest the 
habitation, and render life miserable, or ter¬ 
minate it. The fort is divided from the 
opplanade by a moat; over this several 


bridges conduct to the chief gates. Within 
the fort are some fine houses, and a multitude 
of shops, in close, narrow, dusty streets. 
Almost everything is dear, except China and 
Indian silks, and Indian cotton cloths. The 
Parsees are amongst the most respectable 
shopkeepers, but it is remarkable that these 
devotees of the sun keep their shops pecu¬ 
liarly dark. From the fort the visitor emerges 
to “ the Bombay Green.” Several of the 
principal public buildings are there: the 
Town Hall, Library, and Council Chamber 
occupy one pile of considerable architectural 
pretensions. Mrs. Postans says, “ with the 
exception of the British Museum, and the 
Bibliotheque du Roi, not inferior to any of 
the same description.” Two statues by 
Chantrey adorn the interior of this building— 
one of Sir John Malcolm, and the other of 
the Hon. Mr. Elphinstone. 

Bombay has long been especially well off for 
literature, and the means of promoting its in¬ 
crease. Several newspapers of superior merit 
exist. The Bombay Gazette is managed by its 
talented proprietor, J. Conan, Esq., secretary 
to the Bombay Chamber of Commerce, a dis¬ 
tinguished political economist. The Bombay 
Times lately edited by Dr. Buist, who has ob¬ 
tained celebrity as a geologist, and also in 
other departments of science. “ The Asiatic 
Society has an immense and well-chosen 
library and a museum; but books may also be 
obtained at the ‘ Europe shops,’ where every¬ 
thing else is vended. The bazaars are not 
very handsome, but well supplied; there is a 
theatre, where amateurs occasionally act; 
enormous cotton screws, a spacious hotel, 
commercial houses and offices upon a grand 
scale, and an infinite variety of places of wor¬ 
ship. The Roman Catholic chapels and 
churches are more numerous here than in any 
other part of India, as the descendants of the 
early Portuguese visitors abound. Mosques 
and Hindoo temples are constantly found 
contiguous to each other; and the Parsees— 
the descendants of the Ghebers, or fire-wor¬ 
shippers—have their augiaree , or fire-temple, 
where the sacred fire is constantly kept up by 
the priests, who receive, from pious Parsees, 
through the grating which encloses the silver 
stove, offerings in the form of sandal wood. 
There are few statues in Bombay, but the 
churches contain handsome monuments, and 
there are some busts and pictures in the Town 
Hall and the rooms of the societies and 
institutions.” * 

At Malabar Point is a house which be¬ 
longed to Sir John Malcolm, and which 
afterwards became the residence of the go¬ 
vernor when the heat became too great at 
* J. H. Stocqueler. 




142 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VII. 


Parell, the usual abode of the chief magis¬ 
trate. The rocky headland of Malabar Point 
is a gorgeous situation. The sea-view is truly 
magnificent, and the inland prospect is beau¬ 
tiful ; an undulated country, covered with the 
pale bamboo, the deep-tinged palm, and the 
amber-tinted cocoa groves, meets the gazer’s 
eye. Night is also beautiful around this 
chosen spot. The stars shine out with a 
lustre unknown to our hazy clime, and the 
moonlight spreads a chaste glory over the 
sparkling sea and dark woods. Frequently 
the Parsee may he seen beneath as the sun 
sets, paying his homage to the retiring god of 
his adoration; and when the sun has gone 
down, the funeral pyres of the Hindoo show 
their red glare against the dark woods. Sir 
John Malcolm was a man of taste as well as 
genius; the selection of this spot proves the 
one, as his writings and his deeds have long 
since attested the other. 

Five miles from the fort is Parell, the site 
of government house. It w T as built by the 
Portuguese for a monastery. The house is 
spacious, and the grounds well laid out; and 
on occasions of public receptions and festi¬ 
vities it appears worthy of being a viceregal 
seat. 

The Horticultural Society’s gardens are not 
tar from the governor’s chief residence. 

The Pilgrim’s Pool is one of the most sin¬ 
gular places in Bombay. It is an asylum for 
aged and diseased animals ! and well answers 
its purposes. Here horses, cows, dogs, &c., 
are fed and cared for as pensioners of the 
bounty of a tender-hearted native, who thus 
disposed of his riehes. 

The Elphinstone College and Native Edu¬ 
cation Society’s schools are also creditable to 
the city, and to the founders of those in¬ 
stitutions. 

The character of the population of Bombay 
depends upon the religion professed. The 
professors of Brahminism are there what they 
are elsewhere, mentally and morally; the de¬ 
scription given by the Rev. Mr. Milner is pre¬ 
cisely expressive of the facts :—“ They have 
considerable skill in the mechanical arts, pro¬ 
duce cotton, silk, and woollen fabrics in high 
perfection, and are almost unrivalled in deli¬ 
cate working in ivory and metals. They have 
in general no standard of morality beyond 
convenience; and hence their character is 
largely a compound of selfishness, deceit, 

cunning, impurity, and cruelty.The 

mass of the population are idolaters. Multi¬ 
plied forms and ceremonies, fatiguing pil¬ 
grimages, rigorous fastings, and acts of un¬ 
cleanness, are exacted; while observances, 
amounting even to the wilful sacrifice of life, 
illustrate the connection proclaimed in the 


Scriptures between ‘the dark places of the 
earth’ and the ‘habitations of cruelty.’” 

The Jains are a peaceful and laborious 
sect. Their temples are not imposing; they 
resemble dwelling-houses, but are distinguish¬ 
able by excellent external carvings. Only a 
few Buddhists are to be found upon the 
island. 

The Mohammedans are not so numerous as 
in the Deccan, Central India, and Madras. 
They are morally and intellectually degraded. 
There are, however, some disciples of the 
Koran of respectability in the western metro¬ 
polis. 

The Parsees, or Ghebers, are very nume¬ 
rous; they have at Bombay, as at Canton, 
the chief share in the opium trade; they also 
take a respectable position as cotton mer¬ 
chants, bankers, and dealers in the bazaars. 
The richest inhabitants of Bombay Island are 
undoubtedly the worshippers of the sun. No 
inhabitants of the place—not even the most 
important European functionaries—can vie 
with them in luxurious living ; at government 
house alone entertainments are given which 
exceed theirs in splendour. Within the last 
thirty years, one of this fraternity rose from 
the humblest condition in life to be one of 
the richest merchants and capitalists in the 
world. His name was Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, 
and his reputation as a merchant and a capi¬ 
talist reached England and the English court, 
where his benevolence and loyalty received 
honourable marks of distinction. His first 
occupation in life was that of a dealer in 
empty bottles; these he used to purchase, by 
giving a rupee for so many to the butlers of 
English families. He accumulated money 
rapidly, by selling them at a profit, opened a 
place of business in one of the bazaars, and 
became the wealthiest man in the presidency, 
perhaps in India. 

Another gentleman of this sect, Hormarjee 
Boomanjee, occupied some years ago a man¬ 
sion near that of the governor, which in some 
respects rivalled it, and which was known by 
the title of Lowjee Castle. A visitor described 
it as spacious, built with architectural taste, 
and furnished richly and most elegantly. The 
drawing-room, decorated with princely ex¬ 
penditure and the propriety of a correct taste, 
and every apartment suitably provided with 
such costly articles as best became it. Luxu¬ 
rious couches and ottomans, covered with 
damask silk, arranged with gilded fauteuils 
of the most commodious form; good paint¬ 
ings, including full-length portraits of Lord 
Nelson and Sir Charles Forbes, ornamented 
the drawing-room; and superb windows of 
painted glass cast the brilliantly-tinged rays 
of the departing sun on chandeliers of daz- 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


M3 


Chap. VII, j 

zling lustre. “ When, after a lengthened visit, 
we rose, intending to take our leave of Lowjee 
Castle and its amiable inmates, a servitor 
brought forward a large silver salver, covered 
with bloqming bouquets, most tastefully ar¬ 
ranged. In presenting the choicest for my 
acceptance, Hormarjee gracefully expressed 
his hope that I would pardon the adoption of 
an Eastern custom, by which to denote the 
pleasure our society had afforded him.” 

Polygamy is seldom practised by the 
Parsees, and thoir general morality is greatly 
superior to that of Brahmins, Buddhists, 
Jains, or Mohammedans. Their loyalty is 
unquestionable. Any portion of the native 
press that is not pervaded by bigotry or 
atheism, and by a disloyalty attending either 
phase of native opinion and feeling, is in the 
hands of the Parsees. They feel deeply grate¬ 
ful to the British for the protection afforded 
to their persons, religion, property, and com¬ 
merce, and regard with unaffected disgust 
and abhorrence the sanguinary intolerance 
and disloyalty which pervade the natives, 
especially the educated portion of them, 
known as “Young India.” 

The beauty of the Parsees exceeds that of 
any other of the inhabitants of Bombay. The 
Parsee ladies are fair, with finely-formed fea¬ 
tures, and graceful, dignified mien. Many of 
the English and the Jewish ladies may be 
seen to vie with the loveliest of “ the daughters 
of the sun,” but there is a greater proportion 
of fine specimens of the fair sex, perhaps of 
both sexes, among the Parsees, than among 
any other class, European or Asiatic, at 
Bombay. 

The Parsees of Bombay are said to have 
come thither from Gujerat, to which place 
they emigrated from Ormuz, in the Gulf of 
Persia. Very few of them brought wives, 
generally single men having ventured on the 
enterprise. They selected maidens of Guje¬ 
rat, their taste being for the fairest in com¬ 
plexion ; hence the race now inhabiting Bom¬ 
bay is not purely Persian, yet much fairer 
than the people of Hindoostan. 

In the fort there are two large fire temples, 
which are kept scrupulously closed against 
foreign inspection. They contain spacious 
halls, with central arches, beneath which are 
placed the vase of sacred fire. The priests 
of the Ghebers resemble the Jewish priests 
in appearance and attire. They wear their 
beards long and flowing; and these being 
sometimes white, by reason of the age of the 
wearer, the turban colourless, and the vest or 
robe white and ample, their appearance is 
very venerable. They are not respected; 
whether this arise from the scepticism of the 
worshippers, or the general character of the 


sacerdotal class, it is difficult to conjecture, as 
the behaviour of the clergy is. respectable, 
and that of the people devout. Some suppose 
that the origin of this contempt is difference 
of race, the people having landed without 
priests, and having employed a native race in 
Gujerat to adopt the clerical functions whose 
opinions were not remote from their own. 
Others attribute the feeling to the offices 
which devolve upon the clergy—chiefly that 
of bearing away the dead, whom they deposit 
in towers, where the corpse is exposed to 
birds of prey, which devour it. The thought 
of this inspires, it is alleged, even loathing in 
the breast of the Parsee to his spiritual leader. 
The chief priest, however, is not the object 
of such feelings, but receives reverence from 
the whole community. 

The Parsees are variously estimated in 
numbers, some computing them as a fourth 
of the whole population of the island, and 
others as lower than one-tenth. 

The Jews are comparatively numerous, 
and many of them very wealthy. The men 
are always on the alert as traffickers or 
money-changers; the women live in great 
seclusion. 

The Armenian Christians are much and 
deservedly respected; their numbers are 
small, and their church in the fort is of 
mean dimensions. They are generally settlers 
from Bushire or Bussorah, who transact busi¬ 
ness in stuffs and gems. Some of the Arme¬ 
nians are horse-dealers; they are considered 
good judges of the animal, and fair sellers, 
but are not at all equestrian in their own 
habits. They wear the dress of Persia, and 
disfigure themselves with henna, dying beard, 
hair, and whiskers with it, any dark colour 
pertaining to any of these ornaments of the 
male head being an object of distaste. A 
European blessed with auburn or sandy hair, 
whiskers, or moustache, is supposed either to 
possess the secret of some exquisite dye, or to 
be endowed by nature with attributes of great 
beauty. The moral character of the Arme¬ 
nians is excellent; their habits orderly; their 
business talents eminent; their loyalty un¬ 
doubted, but not active. The people have a 
great respect for Protestantism, but the clergy 
prefer the Greek or Latin churches, and are 
extremely jealous of their people entering a 
Protestant place of worship, or perusing Pro¬ 
testant books, especially if written on any 
theological subject. 

The descendants of the Portuguese are ill- 
looking, venal, bigoted, ignorant, and super¬ 
stitious—despised by every other class. 

There are a few Greeks, who differ in 
nothing from their compatriots all over the 
world. 



144 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMITRE 


[Chap. VII. 


In a chapter upon the social condition of 
the people of India, reference will be again 
made to the inhabitants of this city. 

Since the establishment of communication 
with Europe by the Red Sea route, Bombay 
has acquired importance, being the first point 
of India gained by the outward-bound vessels, 
and the last left on the homeward voyage. 
The following are the travelling distances 
from it to the most considerable cities and 
towns, according to Major Rennell:— 


Allahabad. 

Miles. 

. 977 

Juggernaut . . . 

Miles. 

. . 1052 

Ahmedabad . . . . 

. 321 

Indore. 

. . 456 

Ahmednuggur. . . 

. 181 

Lahore. 

. . 1010 

Arcot. 

. 722 

Lucknow .... 

. . 923 

Aurungabad. . . . 

. 260 

Madras. 

. . 758 

Baroch. 

. 221 

Masulipatam . . 

. . 686 

Bassein. 

. 27 

Mirzapore. . . . 

. . 952 

Bednore. 

. 452 

Moorshedabad . 

. . 1259 

Bijanaghur .... 

. 398 

Mooltan .... 

. . 920 

Calcutta.. 

1301 

Mysore. 

. . 630 

Canege. 

. 889 

Nagpore. 

. . 552 

Cashmere. 

. 1233 

Oude. 

. . 1013 

Cuttack. 

. 1034 

Oojein. 

. . 486 

'Cochin. 

. 780 

Patna. 

. . 1145 

Delhi. 

. 880 

Pondicherry. . . 

. . 805 

Dowlatabad .... 

. 258 

Poonah . 

. . 98 

Goa. 

. 292 

Serin gapataxn , . 

. . 622 

Golconda. 

. 475 

Sumbhulpore 

. . 826 

Gwalior. 

. 768 

Surat. 

. . 177 

Hyderabad .... 

. 480 

Tellecherry . . . 

. . 615 


Should a canal be cut across the Isthmus 
of Suez, Bombay will become in all probability 
a more important position than Calcutta ; it 
will at all events rival that city, now so much 
more wealthy, populous, and powerful. “ The 
distance from the English Channel to Calcutta, 
by the Cape of Good Hope, following the 
route taken by the best sailing vessels, may 
be put down at 13,000 miles. By the Medi¬ 
terranean, the proposed canal across the Isth¬ 
mus of Suez, the Red Sea, and Indian Ocean, 
the distance would be" about 8000 miles ; as 
compared with the former, the latter would 
effect a saving of 5000 miles. By the Cape 
route to Bombay the distance may be com¬ 
puted at 11,500 miles, by the Red Sea route, 
6200; and here the gain would be 5300 miles. 
By the aid of this maritime canal, troops 
would arrive at Bombay from Malta in three 
weeks; in Ceylon or Madras in four; and in 
Calcutta in five : and they would arrive fresh 
and vigorous, because unfatigued in body, 
and without experiencing that lassitude of 
the mind which a protracted and wearisome 
sea voyage generally induces. With such 
facilities, it may fairly be concluded that the 
maintenance of a smaller number of European 
troops in garrison would be perfectly com¬ 
patible with security. Nor can it be doubted 
that when the natives became aware of this 
rapid mode of transit for man and munitions 


of war, the disposition to revolt would be 
greatly enfeebled. The mercantile marine, 
both of England and America, would be bene¬ 
fited by the shortening of distance. It would 
bring New York nearer to Bombay by 7317 
miles, and New Orleans by 8178. Con¬ 
stantinople would save 12,900, and St. Peters¬ 
burg 8550 miles. The countries on the coasts 
of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, the eastern 
coast of Africa, India, the kingdom of Siam, 
Cochin China, Japan, the vast empire of China, 
with its teeming millions, the Phillipine Islands, 
Australia, and New Zealand, with the whole 
Southern Archipelago, would be brought 
nearer to the Mediterranean Sea and the 
north of Europe by almost 9000 miles: the 
whole world would be in proximity.” The 
British government is opposed to the forma¬ 
tion of such a ship canal on grounds of policy. 
Possessing, as France does, a powerful naval 
arsenal in the Mediterranean, she might, by 
means of such a passage, seriously menace 
our Indian empire. It is with a full know¬ 
ledge of this that M. Lesseps and other 
Frenchmen have so perseveringly urged this 
scheme. Lord Palmerston energetically and 
clearly placed the views of the British govern¬ 
ment before that of France on this subject, 
and the Emperor Napoleon admitted the 
reasonableness of the sensitiveness of the 
government of her Britannic majesty in refer¬ 
ence to such an enterprise. The scheme 
has, moreover, been pronounced by the most 
competent English engineers as impracticable ; 
and by eminent men, who pronounce that it 
is not absolutely impossible, it has , been ad¬ 
mitted that the scheme is beyond private 
enterprise, and could only be executed and 
sustained' by such a harmonious concourse of 
governments as is scarcely within the range 
of hope. The project finds, however, very 
general favour in Europe, perhaps as much 
from motives inimical to England as any 
other. Should a ship canal, by any concur¬ 
rence of circumstance and combination of 
powers, be formed, it will in all probability 
tempt the British government into hostile 
operations from India and from the Mediter¬ 
ranean, involving wide-spread and sanguinary 
conflict. 

The neighbourhood of the city is very 
beautiful, the whole island being exceedingly 
picturesque. Excellent roads exist, and the 
citizens enjoy their drives to the surrounding 
districts very much. On Sunday these roads 
are most frequented, the esplanade being 
comparatively forsaken. “The early riser, 
desiring to pursue his ride into the lovely 
scenes which skirt the town, will find these 
roads clear of all offence. The porters and 
artizans then lie shrouded in their cundies; 







































IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


145 


Chap. VII.] 

the market people have a wide path, as they 
bring in the fresh fruits of the neighbouring 
country ; the toddy drawers appear, crowned 
with an earthen vessel, overflowing with the 
delicious juice of the palm-tree ; and Hindoo 
girls, seated behind baskets of bright blossoms, 
string fragrant wreaths to adorn the altars of 
their gods. Thus fresh and tranquil remain 
the elements of the scene, until the hurry and 
the toil of life fill it with that suffocating heat 
and deafening clamour attendant upon the 
interests of eager traffic.” 

The roads of the island are, from the un¬ 
dulated character of the surface, much curved, 
thereby affording great variety of prospect; 
now turning towards the sunlit bay, and anon 
presenting prospects of wooded knolls and 
palm forests. In the evening the dusty roads 
are trodden by bullock-drivers and the heavier 
description of vehicles, carrying produce for 
the early morning market of the city; this 
circumstance causes the drives through the 
island to be preferable at early dawn to the 
soft season of sunset. 

In the bay boating affords pleasant recrea¬ 
tion, and an ever-changing land and sea 
scenery. The little island of Colabah is a 
place of constant resort, and some Europeans 
prefer it to any other place in its neighbour¬ 
hood as a residence. It is considered pecu¬ 
liarly healthy, and its situation is delightfully 
picturesque, affording from its shores views of 
exquisite beauty. The lighthouse and the 
lunatic asylum are on this islet; a good road 
runs through it, and it is connected with the 
island of Bombay by a causeway, over which 
formerly the sea rose at high tide, rendering 
the passage difficult and dangerous. 

The diseases are such as are produced by 
the high temperature of the climate, the low 
site of the city, and the prevalence of paddy 
fields on all the low grounds of the island. 
The guinea-worm is a dangerous nuisance to 
Europeans and natives ; many of the former 
suffer so severely from it, as to be obliged to 
return home. Fever and cholera often carry 
away Europeans who expose themselves too 
much to the climate, frequent the woods and 
paddy fields, or are in any other way brought 
within the influence of the malaria which in¬ 
fests the low grounds. Bombay has improved 
in health within the last ten years very rapidly, 
and there is every prospect that it will even¬ 
tually become one of the healthiest neigh¬ 
bourhoods in India. 

The collectorate of Surat is situated at the 
south-western extremity of the ancient pro¬ 
vince of Gujerat. It is a part of that territory 
adjacent to the Gulf of Cambay, and is so in¬ 
tersected with the dominions of native princes, 
that it is difficult to define its limits. It is 


made up of lands taken from independent 
princes at various times. The neighbourhood 
was long noted for the plunder, by gulf and 
river pirates, of trading - vessels; the vigilance of 
the police, the exertions of the Bombay marine, 
and the representations made by the British 
residents at the courts of native princes, have 
all conduced to put a stop to these piracies. 
The country is populous, and highly culti¬ 
vated, producing wheat, rice, jouree, hajeree, 
and other Indian grains, diversified by crops 
of cotton, hemp, tobacco, colouring plants, 
seeds, &c. The cotton of Surat has become 
an important article of commerce. 

The city of Surat is large, mean, and dirty, 
destitute of good public buildings, and con¬ 
taining few Europeans for so large a city. 
There was an hospital for animals at Surat, 
similar to that at Bombay, but remarkable for 
its “ wards,” containing rats, mice, bugs, and 
other noxious creatures ! The site of the city 
is unfavourable for trade, as large ships can¬ 
not ascend the river; but the country behind 
is so fertile, and produces such vast variety 
of commodities, that the commerce of Surat 
is very extensive. Its moral condition is de¬ 
plorable. The Mohammedans are the perpe¬ 
trators of nearly all the violence committed 
in the place, except what is performed by 
imported bravoes and thieves, who are hired 
by the richer natives for purposes of revenge, 
and formerly for the object of plundering the 
houses of tbeir own friends and connexions! 
The Parsees are so frequently made the 
objects of violence by the Mohammedans, 
that they are obliged in self-defence to inflict 
personal chastisement, for they are a brave and 
athbtic race, physically and mentally superior 
to the followers of the false prophet. The 
Hindoos are sly, timid, treacherous, and fur¬ 
tively vindictive ; many perish by poison, 
which they administer upon slight provoca¬ 
tion—a mode of murder in which they are 
singularly expert. This offence is not so 
common as formerly; twenty years ago its 
occurrence was awfully frequent. Opium 
intoxication is very common, and very de¬ 
basing. 

Caste is not so dominant as in most other 
places, and some “ old Indians ” attribute the 
laxity of morals to the “ want of respect for 
their betters” which prevails among the 
native mob of Surat. Religious intolerance 
is carried to bitter extremities by Hindoos 
and Mohammedans, not only against one 
another, but against the Parsees, who offer 
no provocation to the insults and outrages of 
which they are the victims. The Brahmins 
are not so hostile to the Parsees as to the 
Mohammedans, nor are they so ready to per¬ 
secute the Parsees as the Mohammedans are. 

c 


VOL. I. 



146 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


The worshippers of the sun have grown so 
influential and wealthy, that they are able to 
protect themselves; and the British, although 
generally they lean to high caste men, and 
“ hold up the aristocratic principle for the 
sake of order,” are too generous to allow in¬ 
justice to be done to the quiet and manly 
Ghebers. 

The distance from Bombay is about one 
hundred and seventy miles. Before the 
English obtained possession of Bombay, Surat 
was the capital of the presidency. The popu¬ 
lation is still larger than that of the metropolis 
of Western India. The intervening shores 
are low, flat, and sandy, destitute of any in¬ 
teresting scenery, except the panorama of the 
distant hills. 

The scenes in the streets of Surat are 
peculiar, in some respects resembling those 
of Bombay, as to the quality and character of 
the native population. Not only are the three 
prevailing religious septs described above to be 
met with, but also Jains, Jews, Syrians, Arme¬ 
nians, Greeks, and descendants of the Portu¬ 
guese. The most remarkable of all are the 
Arabs; these at certain seasons pitch their 
tents upon the pleasantest spots on the banks 
of the Tapty, just as gipsies would in the 
neighbourhood of an English city. They are 
the most picturesque-looking of the dwellers 
in or frequenters of the great city; their 
many-coloured turbans and showy vests can¬ 
not fail to attract attention, and their coun¬ 
tenances are often fiercely fine. 

There are many traces of the former opu¬ 
lence of this city in the remains of gardens 
and mansions, which once belonged to the 
merchant princes of Surat, before Bombay 
tore the wreath from her brow; and these 
mansions and pleasure-grounds were easily 
placed on sites tastefully selected, for in the 
neighbourhood of the city the banks of the 
Tapty are very pleasant. 

The ghauts, or landing-places, do not, as 
in so many other cities of India, already 
noticed, lead to temples, nor are they con¬ 
structed with the lavish expenditure and 
richly creative taste of those flights of steps 
elsewhere. They are more frequently to be 
seen occupied with dhobies than devotees. 
The dhobies are washerwomen, who ply their 
calling very much in the manner which Sir 
Walter Scott described his fair countrywomen 
in rural districts performing similar operations. 

Within six miles of the city there is a 
place of religious ablution, called Pulpunah. 
There sacred groves, altars, and temples 
abound. The groves are hung with wreaths 
of choicest flowers. The ghauts are sculp¬ 
tured and festooned, leading to temples, where 
domes and columns look down in their 


[Chap. VH. 

cold and stern majesty upon the bright and 
careering river. It is a noted place for 
funeral pyres ; the ashes of the dead are 
solemnly spread upon the holy current, which 
seems, as if a thing of life, to bear them wil¬ 
lingly away from the sacred scene. It is 
astonishing what crowds of fakeers, and other 
religious devotees, assemble among these 
clustering temples. Nowhere is this vaga¬ 
bond class so ripe in imposture as in this 
holy vicinity. Their control over the laity 
is astonishing, and their exercise of it rapa¬ 
cious, violent, and disgusting. Whatever 
these revered robbers choose to demand the 
people give them, a denial involving the peril 
of their soul’s ruin. Among the chief curio¬ 
sities of the place are the herds of sacred 
bulls, which are kept by the Brahmins, and 
treated by the people with the greatest reve¬ 
rence. 

Pulpunah is not the only interesting suburb 
of Surat; all its vicinity is as pleasant as the 
city itself is dirty, dreary, and decadent. 
Long shaded lanes, reminding the English 
visitor of the green lanes of England, surround 
the city, and the cultivated fields and river 
scenery cannot fail to arrest the attention. 
The wooded hills are the haunts of game. 
At Vaux’s tomb, in the Gulf of Cambay, near 
the embouchure of the Tapty, the wild hog, 
often hunted by the Europeans of Surat, is 
numerous, and affords ample sport. The 
French town and gardens are objects of plea¬ 
sant interest, and within pedestrian distance 
of the city. 

The military cantonments are regarded as 
pleasant by the military; and Surat has long 
borne a reputable character among gentlemen 
of the Bombay army, as a sociable and cheerful 
place in which to be quartered. 

Baroch is another district of Gujerat, and 
is bounded on the west by the Gulf of Cam- 
bay. Few ports of the west of India are so 
well cultivated or populous. The capital of 
the district, also named Baroch, is situated on 
an eminence on the north bank of the Ner- 
buddah, t wenty-five miles from the entrance 
to the river. The town is as dirty and dreary 
as Surat: it is surrounded by a most fertile 
country, and its market is one of the best in 
India. The town was once the seat of a 
considerable trade, especially for cotton cloths, 
which were beautifully white, the river Ner- 
buddah having the property of bleaching. 
The neighbourhood is picturesque, chiefly 
because of the superior cultivation. Many 
ruins of mosques and mausolea are scat¬ 
tered in the vicinity. About ten miles from 
the city there is an island in the river, where 
aged or sick Hindoo penitents bury them¬ 
selves alive, or are buried alive by their rela- 









IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


147 


Chap. VII.] 

lives as an act of piety. On this island is a 
hanyan-tree, said to be the most extraordinary 
in existence; but it was formerly much larger 
than it is now, for the floods, rising, have 
washed away portions of the island, and with 
it the branching roots of the tree where they 
had extended themselves too far. The tree 
is still represented to be two thousand feet in 
circumference, measuring round the different 
stems; but the hanging branches, the roots 
of which have not yet reached the ground, 
measure a much wider area. The chief 
trunks of the tree number three hundred and 
fifty, each of these larger than an ordinary 
English elm; and the smaller stems, forming 
strong supporters, are more than three thou¬ 
sand. The natives allege that it is three 
thousand years old, can afford shade for seven 
thousand persons, and that it originally sprung 
from the toothpick of a certain Hindoo saint. 
A writer on the productions of India states 
that “this is the tree alluded to by Milton in 
his Paradise Lost." 

The collectorate of Abmedabad is not 
remarkable for anything except the city and 
its vicinity. This city was once the capital 
of Gujerat, but it has long fallen into decay. 
So splendid was it in the reign of Akbar, 
that the ruins now cover an area the circum¬ 
ference of which is thirty miles. In fact, the 
country is covered with remains of palaces, 
serais, mosques, temples, tanks, aqueducts, 
and other works of grandeur and great public 
utility. Wild beasts now infest the neigh¬ 
bourhood. The city is noted for its jugglers 
and itinerant musicians, classes to which the 
natives of the villages of Gnjerat give extern 
sive encouragement. 

The collectorate of Kaira is a large district 
in the Gujerat province: it is very wild and un¬ 
settled, and has been remarkable for the prac¬ 
tices of the Bhatts and Bharotts, a species of fana¬ 
tics who, if denied a demand, will inflict upon 
their own persons a gash with a knife, which 
the natives suppose that the gods will here¬ 
after inflict upon him who, denying the 
request, occasioned the misfortune. If this 
does not intimidate, the Bhatts will murder 
an old woman or some outcast, and leave the 
crime at the door of the person who denied 
their request, which alarms the Hindoo more 
than if he had himself perpetrated the crime, 
which he would seldom fail to do if moved by 
what he considered to be an adequate reli¬ 
gious motive. If the Bhatts or Bharotts do 
not obtain their infamous end in that way, 
they will not hesitate to murder one of them¬ 
selves, or one of their relations, still more 
exciting the horror and the alarm of the 
unfortunate victim upon whom the demand 
is made. Should, however, the Hindoo have 


firmness to resist the demand after all these 
wild manifestations of cruel importunity, the 
Bhatts will probably murder the man who 
dares so persistently to refuse compliance with 
their wishes. Kaira, the capital of the dis¬ 
trict, is in no way noticeable. 

Candeish is a province of the Deccan, of 
which ancient division of India a general 
description was given in the last chapter. 
The Mahrattas here held sway in the days of 
their power. A considerable portion of Can¬ 
deish belonged to the Holkar family, having 
been, like the adjacent province of Malwah, 
divided between the Peishwa, Scindiah, and 
Holkar. The Tapty, Nerbuddah, and their 
tributaries water the country, which, how¬ 
ever, is not well cultivated. The interior 
is curiously cut up by ravines, from thirty 
to forty feet deep, winding along sometimes 
for miles. The ridges of the Western Ghauts 
extend along the Tapty. Among the hills, 
and along the courses of the rivers, many 
Bheel tribes reside, who becajne troublesome 
to the government immediately previous to 
the military revolution of 1857, and again 
during the progress of that crisis. Candeish 
proper comprises what in the reign of the 
Emperor Akbar comprehended the whole of 
Candeish. It is the most fertile and populous 
region of the territories which are known 
under that general designation. Berhanpore 
was the ancient capital: it is situated on a 
fine plain, fairly cultivated. This city was 
once ten miles in circumference, but it is now 
shorn of its glory. It is about three hundred 
and forty miles from Bombay, in latitude 
21° 19' north, and 76° 18' east longitude. 

Husseinabad is a noted city in this province, 
being regarded as a good position in a mili¬ 
tary point of view, and the key of this por¬ 
tion of the Deccan. The town is neverthe¬ 
less neither well built nor populous. The 
water of the Nerbuddah is here peculiarly 
sweet and agreeable; the valley through 
which it flows in the vicinity of the town is, 
notwithstanding the advantage of its pre¬ 
sence, badly cultivated, and covered in most 
places with jungle. During the month of 
February the appearance of this jungle is 
very beautiful, in conseqiience of a shrub 
which bears flowers of the brightest scarlet. 
At the same season another flowering shrub 
fills the air with the richest perfume; these 
odoriferous flowers are gathered and dried, 
when they assume the appearance of berries, 
and are as sweet as raisins. The natives 
distil a sort of vinous spirit from them. 

Poonah, now a collectorate of Bombay, 
was once the metropolitan province of the 
Mahratta empire. The city is situated lati¬ 
tude 15° 30' north, longitude 74° 2' east; 



148 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VII. 


about thirty miles to the east of the Ghauts, 
and one hundred miles from Bombay. The 
rank of this city is superior to its area or 
population. The streets are all named after 
mythological personages, and the gods of the 
Hindoo Pantheon are painted on the fronts 
of the houses : judging from the nomencla¬ 
ture of the streets, and other signs, it is the 
most religious city in the world. At this 
town the Moota River joins the Moola; their 
union is called the Moota Moola, and is 
emptied into the Beema, which afterwards 
forms a junction with the Kistna. By this 
route, during the rainy season, a river-voyage 
may be made from within seventy-five miles 
of the western coast of India to the Bay of 
Bengal, provided the passage be undertaken 
in a canoe. The ancient palace of Poonah is 
surrounded by high thick walls: a modern 
one was erected more to the taste of the 
peishwa. The native population probably 
exceeds one hundred and fifty thousand. 

Poonah is an important situation in refer¬ 
ence to the large portion of the Deccan sub¬ 
ject to the Bombay government. The mili¬ 
tary cantonments are not large, hut are plea¬ 
santly situated, and very convenient. The 
neighbourhood is famous for hog-hunting, 
in which the officers of the cantonment min¬ 
gle with great zest, whatever may be the 
corps there stationed. This is a perilous 
amusement; it would be so in ground more 
favourable to horsemanship than the Deccan, 
which, in these districts, is made up to a great 
extent of rock, hill, and ravine. The wild 
hog holds his retreat in rather elevated situa¬ 
tions, and can defend himself, to the peril of 
his pursuers, man and horse, of which both 
soon become conscious. 

Within a mile or two of Poonah the 
governor has a bungalow, which is beautifully 
situated; the choicest plants, native and exotic, 
bloom in the gardens. The collection of 
geraniums is very fine, the soil of the Deccan 
being especially favourable to them. The 
scarlet species abound in the gardens, and are 
found wild in the neighbourhood. 

The Temple of Parbuttee is still an object 
of interest at Poonah, although shorn of its 
former glory. The Temple of Pawatti, the 
Mountain Goddess, is beautifully situated on 
a lofty hill, surrounded by luxuriant gardens, 
rich in the empurpled clusters of the Dec- 
can vine, and the dusky fruit of the sweet- 
juiced pomegranate.” In the neighbourhood 
of Poonah there is a remarkable grove of 
mango-trees, planted by the peishwa in ex¬ 
piation of the murder of his brother. The 
Ketuah Bang, a country seat, also a creation 
of the peishwa, is very beautiful—the building 
is supported on handsome Saracenic arches, 


the grounds are tastefully laid out in the best 
oriental style—cool kiosks, and numerous jets 
of sparkling water, causing a freshness the 
most salutary and agreeable. About two 
miles from Poonah is the cavalry cantonment 
of Kirkee, where Sir Arthur Wellesley wooed 
fortune on the battle-field. 

Between the bridge of the Sungum near 
Poonah, and Kirkee, there is a beautiful 
cave-temple cut in the limestone rock. In 
the centre a circle of rude columns, in the 
simplest style of Hindoo architecture, sup¬ 
port a huge block of rock; below this kneel 
the sacred bull of Siva (Nandi), uncaparisoned 
and rough hewn. At the other end is a 
number of square pillars, which support the 
roof. The whole structure is curious. The 
hanks of the Sungum River in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Poonah are very pretty, but the 
beauty is of the ordinary description of Indian 
rivers. 

In connection with Poonah, the district ol 
Sattara naturally claims attention. The 
peishwas by whom Poonah was governed 
virtually ruled Sattara for more than one 
hundred years. The rajah, however, was 
treated as supreme, the peishwa pretending 
allegiance, and offering an ostensible obedi¬ 
ence. The rajah was, in fact, a prisoner at 
his hill fort of Sattara. When the British 
expelled the peishwa, in 1818, the rajah was 
reinstated by them as sovereign over a consider¬ 
able portion of his dominions, bounded to the 
west by the Western Ghauts, to the south 
by the Warner and Kistna Rivers, to the 
north by the Beema and Neera Rivers, and 
.on the east by the frontier of the nizam’s 
dominions, the whole area occupying a surface 
of eleven thousand square miles. When of 
late the deposition of the Rajah of Sattara 
raised such a clamour in England, it. was 
overlooked by his advocates that the rajahs 
would have continued the actual, although 
not nominal vassals, of the peishwas, had not 
British power rescued them from their thral¬ 
dom. The conditions then imposed were 
thankfully accepted. Whatever might be 
the opinion justly drawn as to the rajah’s ful¬ 
filment of his engagements, these facts ought 
to be borne in mind in any discussion con¬ 
cerning his deposition. 

The hill fort of Sattara was so called (the 
word meaning seventeen) because possessing 
originally seventeen walls, towers, and gates. 
The fortress occupies the highest pinnacle of 
a hill, the access to it being by a circuitous 
path of great difficulty. The cantonment is 
situated in a lovely valley, surrounded by 
magnificent hills, which are crowned in every 
direction available for defence by a fort. The 
scenery generally in the dominions once those 










IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


149 


Chap. VII.] 

of the rajah more resembles that of England 
than probably any part of India. The cot¬ 
tages are thatched—flowers and creepers in 
front and around them; the cattle browsing 
in the fields, guarded by hedges, present quite 
an English home picture. There are, never¬ 
theless, tokens sufficient to convince the visi¬ 
tor that, however English such features of the 
landscape may he, the scenery is still that of 
India; for the cottages are in the vicinities of 
grotesque temples, that tell of idolatry, and 
bring the long past and the present together, 
and the fine English-like roads are skirted by 
avenues of bright tamarind-trees. The fol¬ 
lowing pleasing picture is from the pencil of 
a lady :—“ The dak traveller, leaving Sattara 
in the evening, dawn sees him at the foot of 
the stupendous ghauts, on which has been cut 
the road leading to the Mahabeleshwar hills. 
Winding along the steep brows of lesser 
ghauts, piled, as it were, to oppose the dese¬ 
crating foot of man, the scene becomes rich 
in the features of sublime and fertile loveli¬ 
ness, each ghaut being thickly wooded, 
from its pale purple and sunlit brow, to where 
the gathering and snow-like wreaths of fleecy 
clouds conceals its union with the lowlands. 
On either side of the curving pathway rich 
and graceful trees, festooned with a variety 
of blooming creepers, charm the eye, while 
about the gnarled roots, as if hurled by the 
thunder-armed power of the great storm, lie 
massive fragments of time-stained rocks, 
crushing the verdure on which they fell, until 
time has again, with tenderest touch, encou¬ 
raged fragile and flowery weeds to spring from 
their dark clefts, and sun their sweet heads in 
the glorious light.” Continuing onwards, new 
heights sink into insignificance before other 
and towering elevations. These mountains 
are fantastic in form, bearing a sweet and 
glowing verdure, until the traveller reaches 
the summit of the Mahabeleshwar hills, and 
an atmosphere clear, cold, and invigorating. 
This spot is four thousand eight hundred feet 
above the level of the sea, and has been chosen 
as a sanatorium. In all the Deccan none more 
appropriate could have been chosen. Pretty 
bungalows are erected on eminences which 
command the most splendid combinations of 
scenery. These bungalows are interspersed 
with tents, variously formed and grouped, 
adding much to the picturesque aspect of the 
place. An obelisk to commemorate Sir Sidney 
Beckwick, many years commander-in-chief 
of the Bombay army, is expressive of the 
lasting fame which the brave and good re¬ 
ceive. Plants of fern and arrowroot, exceed¬ 
ingly pleasing to the eye, grow luxuriantly 
wherever the hills have soil; and from the 
clefts of the ragged rocks, plants, shrubs, and 


trees, shoot up in great diversity of beauty. 
The jungles conceal tigers, bears, wolves, elks, 
and other animals—some ferocious, and others 
beautiful and harmless. The points of view 
most inviting are Sydney and Elphinstone 
rocks. From these the rich scenery of the 
Concan lies stretched beneath the beholder’s 
gaze. At a distance of about thirty miles the 
sea is visible, adding to the magnificence of 
the scene, and inspiring a sense of the vast 
and the sublime. From the gorges of the 
mountains innumerable cataracts flash in the 
sun’s rays, leaping from crag to crag, as if 
in wild pursuit of each other, to the plains 
below. In the lower grounds streams wind 
their way, seeking the ocean, and in their 
course blessing with irrigation the grateful 
soil. It is in this range that the Kistna River 
has its sources, in the village of Mahabelesh¬ 
war (“the great and good God”). The 
sources are two in number, and are covered 
by arched and many-columned temples. In 
each the source of this river flows from 
the mouth of the sacred bull Nandi, and is 
received in a tank, whence it overflows, 
winding its way, until, the two streams unit¬ 
ing, and forming confluence with minor 
streams, the Kistna is formed. Viewed from 
the temples, the valley of the Kistna River is. 
extremely lovely. A more fair and pastoral 
landscape could hardly be presented in the 
beautiful west of England, while the rich 
oriental woods, now dark, now bright, crown 
every upland, and bend over the waters of 
the descending current. The supplies of 
grain, fruit, game, beef, mutton, and all the 
necessaries of life, are abundant at the sana¬ 
torium, the whole country beneath being one 
beautiful garden. It has been confidently 
affirmed by the admirers of Indian scenery, 
who have also travelled much in Europe, that 
neither the Alps nor the Pyrenees possess 
scenery so lovely, and at the same time so 
grand, as these ghauts present. 

The fort of Portabghur, perched upon the. 
peak of a ghaut which overlooks the Maha¬ 
beleshwar hills and the splendid scenery of the 
Southern Concan, affords a very magnificent 
prospect, and is in other respects interesting. 
Here there is a temple built to the goddess of 
destruction, in which human victims were 
annually offered by the Rajah of Sattara before 
British authority brought the horrid rites to 
extinction with the tyranny of the peishwa. 
Many deeds of terror and oppression were 
enacted in the blood-stained fort of Por¬ 
tabghur. 

The collectorate of Tannah takes its de¬ 
signation from a town and fortress in the 
island of Salsette. The length of the island 
is eighteen miles by thirteen wide—the average 



150 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VII. 


breadth. It was formerly separated from 
Bombay, across to which a causeway has 
been made. The population is small. The 
island is picturesque, but badly cultivated, 
notwithstanding its proximity to Bombay. It 
is customary for the residents in that island, 
because of the agreeable voyage, to visit Sal- 
sette, although not a healthy place, from the 
prevalence of marsh and jungle. This island 
contains a collection of singular caverns, ex¬ 
cavated in the rocky hills. In one of these 
caverns the Portuguese built a church, and 
in order to make the place appropriate for 
such a purpose, defaced the heathen inscrip¬ 
tions ; two gigantic statues of Buddha, how¬ 
ever, remain. 

In this colleetorate the island of Elephanta 
is situated. It is in the Bay of Bombay, about 
seven miles from the castle, and is a place of 
constant resort from the great western capital. 
The isle is composed of two long hills, with a 
narrow valley between them; it is about six 
miles in circumference. The caves of Ele¬ 
phanta have a world-wide celebrity. Notice 
was taken of them in the chapter on the reli¬ 
gions of India, to which the reader is referred. 
Opinions are very diverse as to the claims of 
the caves found in both these islands to supe¬ 
rior taste on the part of those by whose labour 
and ingenuity they were wrought—some tra¬ 
vellers extolling them as wondrous efforts of 
art, and others depreciating them as much. 
The celebrated historian of India, Mill, thus 
wrote :—“ The cave of Elephanta, not far 
from Bombay, is a work which, from its 
magnitude, has given birth to the supposition 
of high civilisation among the Hindoos. It 
is a cavity in the side of a mountain, about 
half-way between its base and summit, of the 
space of nearly one hundred and twenty feet 
square. Pieces of the rock, as is usual in 
mining, have been left at certain distances, 
supporting the superincumbent matter; and 
the sight of the whole upon the entrance is 
grand and striking. It had been applied at 
an early period to religious purposes, when 
the pillars were probably fashioned into the 
sort of regular form they now present, and 
the figures, with which great part of the 
inside is covered, were sculptured on the stone.” 
Horace Hayman Wilson, Esq., the distin¬ 
guished editor of Mill’s History, affixes the 
following note to the above quotation :—“ The 
cave of Elephanta is not the only subter¬ 
ranean temple of the Hindoos exhibiting on 
a large scale the effects of human labour. In 
the isle of Salsette, in the same vicinity, iB a 
pagoda of a similar kind, and but little infe¬ 
rior to it in any remarkable circumstance. 
The pagodas of Ellora, about eighteen miles 
from Aurungabad, are not of the size of those 


of Elephanta and Salsette, but they surprise 
by their number, and by the idea of the 
labour which they cost. (See a minute de¬ 
scription of them by Anquetil Duperron, 
Zendavesta, Disc. Prelim, p. ccxxxiii.) The 
seven pagodas, as they are called, at Mavali- 
puram, near Madras, on the Coromandel coast, 
is another work of the same description; and 
several others might be mentioned.” 

Dr. Tennant expresses views in harmony with 
those of Dr. Wilson when he says—“ Their 
caves in Elephanta and Salsette are standing 
monuments of the original gloomy state of 
their superstition, and the imperfection of 
their arts, particularly that of architecture.” * 

Forbes, so generally recognised as an autho¬ 
rity, has these opinions :—“ However these 
gigantic statues, and others of similar form, 
in the caves in Ellora and Salsette, may 
astonish a common observer, the man of taste 
looks in vain for proportion of form and ex¬ 
pression of countenance.” f “I must not 
omit the striking resemblance between these 
excavations (Elephanta, &c.) and the sculp¬ 
tured grottoes in Egypt,” &c. “I have often 
been struck with the idea that there may be 
some affinity between the written mountains 
in Arabia and those caves.” J 

The general character of the colleetorate 
does not merit any distinctive notice. 

The colleetorates of Dharwar and Rut- 
nagherry belong to the aneient province of 
Bejapore, and the characteristics are too much 
identical with other portions of the Deccan to 
require a separate description. 

Attached to Bombay as a non-regulation 
district is that of Colara. This small terri¬ 
tory is a portion of the ancient province of 
the Mysore, a country in the south of India, 
nearly surrounded by the Madras presidency. 
The natives of this district are fond of plant¬ 
ing hedges with aloes, of the leaves of which 
they make cordage. The language of the 
people is the Canarese. 

The capital of the district, called by the 
same name, is noted as the birthplace of 
Hyder, father of the notorious Tippoo, whose 
name is so signal in Indian history. The 
latter erected there a handsome monument to 
the former, and near it a mosque, or college 
of moullahs, improperly called by most writers 
Mohammedan priests, as the Mohammedan 
religion has no priesthood. These moullahs, 
or ministers, exercised considerable influence 
there—even beyond what they obtained in 
other parts of India. 

Scinde is a non-regulation province of the 
Bombay presidency: its conquest, after so 

* Indian Recreations , vol. i. p. 6. 

f Forbes’ Oriental Memoirs, vol. i. p. 423. 

+ Ibid. 



Chap. VII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


151 


severe a struggle, by Sir Charles Napier, 
gives an especial interest to it with the 
present generation. It is also a valuable 
province, both from its area and population.* 
Its vicinity to the important province of 
Gujerat, and to the Punjaub, renders it of 
consequence: through it properly lies the 
way from the Punjaub and Affghanistan to 
the sea. By way of Scinde from the west, 
direct and profitable commerce with Persia 
must be opened up from the Bombay presi¬ 
dency. Scinde was in ancient days only a 
province of Mooltan, before that once great 
dominion became itself a province of the 
Lahore government. It occupies both banks 
of the Indus; Mooltan and Affghanistan 
bound it on the north; Cutch and the sea 
bound it upon the south; to the east are 
Ajmeer, the Sandy Desert, and Cutch; and 
on the west it is contiguous to Beloochistan 
and the sea. 

Scinde lies along the plain of the Indus 
from the sea to Sungur. Prom the sea to 
Shikapore is called Lower Scinde; from 
thence to Sungur, Upper Scinde. East of 
the Indus the province is flat from its most 
northern limits to the sea, with the trifling 
exception of a few low hills called the Gunjah. 
On the western bank of the great river, the 
country is much diversified—mountain, vale, 
and undulated surface are comprised within 
it. The soil is various: in some places pro¬ 
ductive—in others poor; in most districts 
capable of high culture, and requiring care 
and improvement in nearly all. The climate 
is good, except where marshy land creates 
miasma. In the months of June and July 
the thermometer ranges from 90° to 100°; 
but the air in northern Scinde is refreshed by 
cooling breezes from the west, so that the 
heat is seldom complained of by Europeans, 
even when the temperature ranges very high. 
About Hyderabad the climate is very agree¬ 
able, and in August, when other portions of 
India suffer much from heat, that region is 
most balmy and agreeable to those who can 
endure a high temperature. In no part of 
India is the air on the whole purer than in 
Scinde. 

The productions of this province, notwith¬ 
standing the low state of cultivation, the 
poverty of the soil in some districts, and the 
necessity for artificial irrigation over a large 
area, arc extremely various. Bice, ghee, hides, 
shark fins, potash, saltpetre, asafoetida, bdel¬ 
lium, madder, indigo, oleaginous seeds as 
fodder for animals, frankincense, musk, alum, 
and gums, are all exported in greater or 
smaller quantities to the neighbouring states. 
In the Bombay market the productions of 
* See page 27. 


Scinde are of great value, and constitute an 
important trade. 

During the reign of the Ameers, the coun¬ 
try retrogaded: that vile race plundered it, 
and discouraged in every way its progress. 
To the Brahmins these Mohammedan tyrants 
were tolerant, but the lower castes they loaded 
with oppression. The mass of the population 
are Hindoos, Jats, and Beloochees—the first- 
named of these being the oldest race of the 
present settlers, or, as some think, the abori¬ 
gines. The men of Scinde are not very tall, 
and seldom are of small stature; to the other 
Indians they are, in this respect, like the 
Spaniards among Europeans. They are well 
formed and strong, much superior to the 
natives of India in the lower provinces of the 
three presidencies. They are very brown in 
complexion, with dark hair and brows. The 
females are both finely formed and featured; 
they are not secluded like the women of the 
south, but are in this particular nearly as free 
as the Sikh ladies. 

The general resemblance of Seinde to Egypt 
must strike every one: a fertile plain bounded 
on the one side by mountains, and on the 
other by a desert; a large river dividing it, 
which forms a delta as it approaches the sea, 
and periodically inundates the country— 
constitute a singular resemblance. The 
districts or sub-districts into which Scinde 
is divided are Shikapore, Hyderabad, and 
Kurrachee. 

Hyderabad has been noticed in another 
page as remarkable for its peculiar situation, 
and its excellent climate. When treating on 
the climate of India generally, reasons were 
assigned for supposing that the locality was 
more favourable to health than any other in 
India. 

Shikapore is a district to the west of the 
Indus, lying between that river and Beloo¬ 
chistan ; it is the southern province of Scinde. 
Near to the Indus the soil is fertile; it be¬ 
comes sterile as it approaches towards Beloo¬ 
chistan. The inhabitants are Jats, with a 
large sprinkling of Beloochees, especially to 
the west of the district; there are Hindoos 
scattered along the river portion. Formerly 
their reputation was very bad, and they 
continued the practice of Dacoitee and other 
delinquencies until the conquest of the British 
enforced order. The town of Shikapore 
stands in latitude 27° 36' north, and longitude 
69° 18' east. The inhabitants are generally 
termed in Scinde Shikaporees; they are 
Hindoos. The commerce of this city is con¬ 
siderable; and before the British occupation 
of the country there were many rich bankers 
there, and a considerable trade kept up with 
the Punjaub, Affghanistan, and Rajpootana. 



152 


HISTORY OF THE 

From Shikapore to Turkistan the bankers of 
this city were famous.* 

Kurrachee has of late years become ex¬ 
ceedingly important — its commerce being 
rapidly on the increase. The establishment 
of a fair there was expected to produce great 
consequences, but they were not realised. 
The commodities were various and valuable 
which were brought thither, but vendors 
rather than buyers made it their resort on 
these occasions. Notwithstanding the failure 
in this respect, its position is such as to jus¬ 
tify great expectations concerning its future 
prosperity, and its utility to India and to 
Britain. “ Kurrachee is a position of very 
great importance, whether regarded in a 
commercial, a political, or a military point of 
view. In a commercial jpoint of view, it may 
be defined the gate of Central Asia, and is 
likely to become to India what Liverpool is 
to England. It has been officially reported 
that accommodation exists for the reception 
within the harbour, at the same time, of 
twenty ships of eight hundred tons (and any 
number of smaller craft). The climate of 
Kurrachee is cool in proportion to its lati¬ 
tude ; and under British auspices, the town 
must speedily become a most important 
place.” f It is situated in latitude 24° 51/ 
longitude 67° 2'. 

Mr. W. P. Andrews, chairman of the Scinde 
and Punjaub Railway, thus describes the port: 
“ The port is protected from the sea and bad 
weather by Munorah, a bluff rocky headland, 
projecting south-eastward from the mainland, 
and leaving a space of about two miles be¬ 
tween the extreme point and the coast to the 
east. The harbour is spacious, extending 
about five miles northward from Munorah 
Point, and about the same distance from the 
town, on the eastern shore, to the extreme 
western point.” 

The great obstacle to commerce, and also 
to the use of the harbour for military pur¬ 
poses, is a bar at the mouth. This bar, how¬ 
ever, admits at times of a depth of twenty-six 
feet of water, which allows vessels of con¬ 
siderable burden to come in, and also ships of 
war. Commodore Young, of the Indian navy, 
twice in the year 1854, took in the steam- 
frigate Queen in the night, and while the 
south-west monsoon prevailed. During the 
expedition to the Persian Gulf, consequent 
upon the Persian occupation of Herat, Com¬ 
modore Rennie, of the Indian navy, was con¬ 
stantly in the harbour, conveying troops, and 
reported that the bar-water was more than 
was indicated by the port-register. 

During the year 1855 the following ships, 

* Elphinstone. 

t Thornton’s Gazetteer. 


BRITISH EMPIRE [Chap. VII. 


among others, entered the harbour of Kur¬ 
rachee :— 


From London. 

Tons. 

Draught. 

Dec. 1. Marion. 

. 684 . 

, . . 18 ft. 

6 in. 

Nov. 23. Norwood. 

. 850 , 

, . . 15 ft. 

0 in. 

Oct. 19. El Dorado. 

. 841 , 

, . . 21 ft. 

0 in. 

Sept. 24. James Gibb .... 

. 813 , 

, . . 21 ft. 

6 in. 

Aug. 12. Marmion. 

. 388 . 

. . . 16 ft. 

3 in. 

„ 6. Kenilworth .... 

. 582 , 

, . . 16 ft. 

6 in. 

July 30. Granger. 

. 878 . 

. . . 19 ft. 

6 in. 

„ „ Sir James ...... 

. 646 . 

, , 


„ 26. Alexander Wise . . 

. 295 , 

, . . 15 ft. 

0 in. 

„ 2. Saxon. 

. 526 . 

. . 15 ft. 

2 in. 

„ „ Tamar. 

. 556 . 

. . 17 ft. 10 in. 

June 30. Semiramis. 


. . large steamer. 

„ 14. Agamemnon.... 

’. 756 ' 

. . . 16 ft. 

3 in. 


Brigadier-general Jacob, C.B., officiating 
commissioner for Scinde, reported, under 
date the 30th of April, 1856, that during 
the year 1854-5 vessels to the number of 
1086, of the burthen of 56,695 tons, entered 
the port of Scinde, thirty-nine of which, in¬ 
cluding steamers, were square-rigged, of a 
burthen of 13,841 tons. The number that 
cleared outwards was 1103 vessels, burthen 
58,194 tons, including square-rigged ships 
and steamers. 

These statements bear upon the commerce 
of India as well as upon the capabilities of 
Kurrachee, but are necessary here to show 
the relative capacity and position of the pro¬ 
vince to which this section refers. 

The court of directors of the East India 
Company commissioned a skilful engineer to 
examine how far the harbour was capable of 
improvement. Lieutenant Grieve, of the 
Indian navy, was directed by the commis¬ 
sioner thus appointed to furnish detailed sur¬ 
veys. The result was a report favourable to 
the harbour :—“ ‘ It is satisfactory to me to 
be able to state, at the outset, that I think 
the objects which the court of directors have 
in view—namely, the deepening, or even the 
entire removal of the bar, and the general 
improvement of the harbour of Kurrachee— 
are not of doubtful execution; but that, on 
the contrary, there is good reason to expect 
through the application of proper means, the 
accomplishment of both—and this at a mode¬ 
rate expense, when compared with what I 
understand to be the almost national import¬ 
ance of a safe harbour at Kurrachee, capable 
of receiving and accommodating sea-going 
vessels of large tonnage; ’ and ‘ that Kurrachee 
is capable of being made an excellent harbour, 
and that there are no very great engineering 
or other physical difficulties to contend with 
in making it such.’ The court of directors 
have sent out an experienced harbour engi¬ 
neer to assist in carrying out the plans of 
Mr. Walker. To that able and excellent 
officer, Captain C. D. Campbell, of the Indian 
navy, belongs the credit of having been the 










Chap. VII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


first to take in on his own responsibility a 
large armed steamer into the harbour of Kur- 
racliee.” . . . . “ Colonel Turner instituted a 
series of very careful experiments by boring, 
and showed most conclusively that there was 
not a particle of rock anywhere on the bar; 
that the whole wa3 composed, to considerable 
depth, of soft sand. The establishment of 
this fact of course removed one principal 
ground of the fear which mariners before 
had—of approaching or touching on the bar.” 

It would appear that the harbour is prac¬ 
ticable, and that for commerce and travel the 
position is one of great consequence :—“ The 
pilgrims from the countries on our north-west 
border, en route to Mecca and other holy 
cities, would supply traffic to the railway and 
steam flotilla, and increase the intercourse 
already established between Kurrachee and 
the ports of the Persian Gulf.” “From the 
Sutlej to the Oxus, whoever wishes to com¬ 
municate with any place beyond the sea must 
pass through Kurrachee. It occupies a posi¬ 
tion scarcely less favourable to commerce than 
that of Alexandria.” * 

The military importance of the port has 
been asserted in very strong terms by various 
officers of high standing, and by civilians, 
whose official connection with government 
and military affairs qualified them to form an 
opinion. “ Of the harbour of Kurrachee I 
have always had the highest opinion.” j* “ It 
can hardly be doubted that Kurrachee is 
destined to be the great arsenal of the Pun- 
jaub and North-western India—perhaps the 
emporium, and even the real capital, of Bri¬ 
tish India.” | Brigadier-general Parr, com¬ 
manding at Kurrachee, stated that, “ by the 
facilities afforded for rapid communication 
with Suez and Mooltan, he hoped at no 
distant date it would positively take less time 
to move a brigade from Southampton to the 
Punjaub than it would at present take to 
move the Kurrachee brigade from this camp 
to Mooltan; in other words, you might have 
Southampton, instead of Kurrachee, the base 
of your operations for any campaigns in the 
Punjaub, or any countries beyond it." 

The question as to how far Kurrachee 
may afford a suitable port of debarkation for 
troops destined for the north-west provinces 
of India, whether under the government of 
Bombay or Agra, and for the non-regulation 
provinces (attached to those governments) of 
Scinde and the Punjaub, or in case of opera¬ 
tions against Eastern Beloochistan and Aff- 

* Vide appendix to the reports of Colonel Jacob and of 
Mr. Dalzell, collector of customs, regarding the trade of 
the province during the year 1855-6. 

f Sir Henry Pottinger. 

f Sir JustiD Sheil. 

VOL. I. 


153 

ghanistan, is one of great concern to the Bri¬ 
tish government, and has obtained additional 
interest from the events of the revolt of 1857. 
During that period the government availed 
itself for the first time, on a scale of any mag¬ 
nitude, of this medium. The following is a 
list of vessels which sailed for Kurrachee with 
troops from the 14th of July to the 15th of 


October, 1857:— 

No. of 

Sailed. Ship. Troops. 

July 14. Sir George Seymour.227 

„ 19. Ramilies.212 

„ 19. Castle Eden.234 

„ 21. Roman Emperor.193 

„ 21. Seringapatam.218 

„ 21. Bombay.348 

„ 21. Albuera.227 

„ 21. Owen Glendower.263 

Sept. 2. Alipore.208 

„ 24. Ireland, S.S. . . . i.301 

Oct. 3. Bahiana, S.S.433 

„ 3. Austria, S.S.718 

„ 15. Southampton, S.S.624 

TROOPS DISPATCHED BY THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 
Sailed. Ship. Men. 

Oct. 2. Sultan, S.S...117 

„ 14. Dutchman, S.S.122 


In connection with the rapid transmission 
of intelligence to and from India, the future 
of Kurrachee seems to promise much. During 
the rebellion of the Bengal sepoys, the want 
of a rapid medium of imparting and receiving 
news and official communications was severely 
felt. Those who are sanguine of the prospects 
of Kurrachee dwell much on this point. Mr. 
Andrews, already quoted, thus argues :—“ To 
be the nearest point to Europe of all our 
Indian possessions is important in many points 
of view, but more especially with reference 
to ‘the Euphrates valley route,’ and every 
remark relative to the direct communication 
of Kurrachee is equally, if not more applic¬ 
able, to that with Bussorah, as materially re¬ 
ducing the sea voyage from India. The 
electric wire will soon connect Kurrachee 
with the Punjaub; and when the proposed 
telegraph communication is established with 
Europe, whether it be by the Persian Gulf or 
the Red Sea, or, as it ought to be, by both 
routes, the advantage will be great, of being 
the medium of disseminating the political and 
commercial intelligence of Europe to the most 
distant parts of our Indian possessions, and 
giving in exchange the most recent events in 
India and Central Asia. Hitherto beyond 
the pale of the electric chain that spans the 
empire, Kurrachee is destined, ere long, to 
become the chief seat of the telegraph in 
India.” 

Sir Henry Pottinger, so famous in the civil 
and militarv administration of India, regarded 
Kurrachee as the point between India and 

x 



















HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chat. VII. 


154 


Europe the best adapted for a port of com¬ 
munication. 

The facilities for the navigation of the 
Indus enter into the discussion in connection 
with this port. The difficulties in the way of 
making the Indus navigable are great. Sir 
Henry Pottinger pronounced it so, after giv¬ 
ing much attention to the matter under the 
most favourable opportunities. The reports 
which he prepared for the directors of the 
East India Company were, unfortunately, 
lost. In conveying at a later period to the 
court his views of the advantages of Kurra- 
chee as a port, and the facility for railway 
enterprise afforded in the valley of the Indus, 
he observed :—“ I had a very complete journal 
of all the events and circumstances attending 
the first mission to Scinde in 1809, in which 
the dangers and difficulties of the navigation 
of the lower delta of the Indus were fully de¬ 
scribed, and exactly tallied with what have 
now been brought forward. My journal and 
all my notes and papers were destroyed on 
the breaking out of the war in 1818, when 
the residency at Poonah was burned by the 
Mahratta army. What I now state may be 
so far satisfactory, perhaps, to the directors, 
as showing the views which were early forced 
on me with regard to the important question 
now under discussion.” * 

The advantage of a line of railway in the 
direction specified would be important in a 
military point of view, whatever might be its 
commercial value. Mr. Frere, the govern¬ 
ment commissioner, has used very conclusive 
arguments on the subject:—“The practical 
value of the railway was to increase the avail¬ 
able power of every ship, and of every man 
employed in military and naval operations. 
In reference to the Punjaub, the capacity of 
moving troops to a given point was of immense 
importance. If they looked at the map they 
would see that they had a mountainous range, 
between which and our possessions the Indus 
formed a natural boundary, and the company 
proposed to make a line along its level plains. 
In a military point of view the advantage 
would be this, that if the Khyber Pass should 
be closed to our forces, they could be moved 
with rapidity to the Bolan Pass, and in either 
case the enemy would be taken in flank or in 
the rear. In the meantime the Euphrates 
Valley Railway would give them the com¬ 
mand of the sea-board of the Persian Gulf, 
and not only this, but the completion of that 
railway would practically make Chatham 
nearer to any point of action in the Persian 
territory than any military force which could 
be brought to bear upon it from Central Asia.” 

* Lieutenant-general the Right Hon. Sir Henry Pot- 
tinger, Bart., G.C.B. 


Whatever may be the effects, military or 
commercial, of the Scinde Railway in connec¬ 
tion with that of the Punjaub, the improve¬ 
ment of the Kurrachee harbour may be made 
of vast use to India and to England irrespec¬ 
tive of it. A Scinde paper, published at the 
close of 1857, contained the following :— 

“ The camel train has commenced its work: 
eight hundred camels are laid on the line 
from Kurrachee to Rohree, and it is hoped 
that within another fortnight the line to 
Mooltan will be completed. Twenty camels 
are stationed at each chowkee, and each 
camel carries a load of four maunds or three 
hundred and twenty pounds. A rather novel 
proposition has been made by Moorad Khan, 
contractor at this station. He engages to 
convey the regiments expected from England 
at Kurrachee, to Mooltan in twelve days. 
He proposes to lay a dawk of one hundred or 
one hundred and fifty camels, at each of 
twenty-five chowkies, at intervals on the 
road. Two soldiers with arms, accoutre¬ 
ments, and ammunition, with water, will form 
the load for one camel, to proceed to the 
first halting-place, where fresh camels will 
carry them on to the next stage, and so on. 
The first lot of camels will return at night, 
and next day a fresh batch of soldiers will 
proceed; thus the whole of the regiments 
will be in advance together, in batches of 
three hundred each. The men on each 
camel will be provided with a cajawah, made 
quite convenient for them to lie down on. 
The contractor will only require government 
to supply biscuits and grog, he guaranteeing 
a regular and good supply of mutton, eggs, 
poultry, milk, butter, &c., the whole of the 
w T ay. This we consider a much better plan 
than keeping up a large establishment of 
camels, with the delay of moving up troops 
by regular marches, the attendant casualties, 
&c. All this will be obviated by a fair remu¬ 
neration to the contractor, who stands all 
risks.” 

The Indus also, whatever the difficulties of 
its navigation for commercial purposes, can be 
made available for military objects, as the 
following extract, taken, at the close of 1857 
from the Scinde Kossid will show:—“ The 
steamers Planet, Napier, and Assyria , with 
the flats Ethersey and Nitocris, have been 
ordered down from the Persian Gulf, and are 
expected here daily. The Indus, undergoing 
repairs at Gizree, will be ready for work 
again at the end of next week. There will 
be no delay now in launching the first of the 
new steamers at Keamaree, as the Wings of 
the Wind has brought up from Bombay all 
the wood-work required in this operation, 
and ere long we may hope to see her afloat. 








IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


155 


Chap. VII.] 

With these valuable acquisitions to the exist¬ 
ing defective flotilla on the river, the naval 
authorities will be able to render invaluable 
service in the conveyance of troops and 
stores up the country. With this fleet, and 
the camel train, organised so efficiently by 
Colonel Hutt, we ought to be in. a position to 
dispatch some thousands of soldiers for the 
relief of the upper provinces, in a shorter 
space of time than can possibly he done from 
the Calcutta side; and we think the public 
will agree with us in saying, that it is very 
much to be regretted that the home authorities 
did not order the greater portion of the re¬ 
inforcements now on their way out, to dis¬ 
embark at Kurrachee rather than in Bengal. 
Had this been done, the present rebellion 
would have been entirely suppressed much 
earlier than it can possibly be by the ar¬ 
rangements already made in England for our 
succour.” 

Finally, in reference to these views of Indian 
authorities in reference to this new emporium 
of commerce, and position of political resource, 
the Calcutta Englishman, so well qualified to 
offer an opinion, may be consulted :—“ Kur¬ 
rachee, situated at the mouth of the Indus, is 
fast advancing in prosperity, and into notice 
as a seaport; it will probably soon be known 
as the first in the empire, being superior to 
Calcutta, Madras, or even Bombay. In a 
commodious harbour, and safe anchorage, it 
will become a depot for the commerce (export 
and import) of all Northern India and Scinde 
with Europe.” 

The modes of opening up communication 
through Scinde affect also the commerce and 
military arrangements of the Punjaub; but 
serious discussions exist as to whether the 
railway system or the river navigation is the 
better mode of accomplishing the object. 
Two different schemes, based upon different 
views, on this subject at present occupy the 
attention of practical men, the East India 
Company, and the government. One party 
proposes a railway of more than one hundred 
miles from Kurrachee to Kotree, on the Indus, 
so as to render unnecessary the circuitous 
route of the river through the delta. At 
Kotree the goods and passengers brought by 
the train are to be embarked on the Indus, 
and borne by steamers to Mooltan: another 
railway is to be constructed thence to Lahore. 
Originally it was supposed that a canal should 
connect Kurrachee (or rather Gizreebunder, 
which is very near it) with Kotree. For this 
plan the East India Company guarantee five 
per cent, to the investors. Upon. this gua¬ 
rantee, however, the following critique has 
been made in a letter to Lord Palmerston by 
Mr. S. H. Clarke, who has been for many 


years a merchant in Scinde and the Punjaub:—- 
“ It would be impossible for any government 
to ensure to the persons embarking in a rail¬ 
way, or any other speculation, the receipt of 
a specific dividend, without contracting obli¬ 
gations to an indefinite amount. If the 
scheme does not pay, the loss must be sus¬ 
tained by some party or other, and that party 
is the government, until the limit of five per 
cent has been reached. But if the loss is 
more than five per cent., not only may the 
whole of the guaranteed interest be swallowed 
up, but the company may be gradually run 
into debt, which debt, if contracted, the 
shareholders must necessarily pay. I believe 
that the misconceptions which have existed 
as to the nature of the East India Company’s 
guarantee have had this mischievous effect, 
that they have taken away that inducement 
which would otherwise have existed to inves¬ 
tigate the intrinsic merits of any of these 
guaranteed projects before embarking in 
them—the shareholder resting on the convic¬ 
tion that he was sure of a five per cent, 
return upon his money, however worthless 
and disastrous the enterprise might be.” 

In favour of the united river and railway 
scheme, comprising the Punjaub as well a3 
Scinde, the following eminent authorities are 
pledged, irrespective of those already quoted 
as approving of some railway and river com¬ 
munications being speedily opened up through 
these provinces:— 

“ The railroad and the steamers may be 
said, with truth, to be the crying wants of the 
Punjaub.” * 

“ What a glorious thing it would have 
been, had the Euphrates Valley Railway and 
the Scinde and Punjaub Railway been accom¬ 
plished facts at the time of the present 
insurrection! ” f 

“ It is sufficient to say that the Punjaub 
section will, in a military and political point 
of view, be of more consequence than perhaps 
any other part of the railway. Following 
generally the line of the present Grand Trunk 
Road, it will bind together the series of first- 
class military stations held by the very flower 
of the army, European and native. It will 
connect the whole of these with the most 
salient point (Peshawur) of the most impor¬ 
tant of the several frontiers, by which the 
British Empire in the East is bounded. It 
will render the whole power of the empire 
capable of being rapidly concentrated and 
brought to bear upon a spot of vital conse¬ 
quence to the politics of Central Asia and of 
the countries bordering upon Europe. Fur¬ 
ther, in a commercial point of view, the 

* Chief Commissioner of the Punjauh. 

f Lahore Chronicle, August, 1857. 



HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. YIT. 


1.56 

Punjaub section will command a portion of 
the commerce between India and Central 
Asia.” * 

The survey of the country from Lahore to 
Peshawur has been recommended by the 
government of India, and authorised by the 
East India Company, and its execution en¬ 
trusted to the engineering staff of the Scinde 
Railway Company. 

Notwithstanding such high authority, and 
the guarantee given by the East India Com¬ 
pany above referred to, it is maintained by 
other persons of authority that the scheme 
can never answer the ends proposed. The 
railway from Kurrachee to Kotree, or to 
Hyderabad, must he carried, it is maintained, 
through a comparatively barren track, which 
would itself afford no means of support; and 
when vessels come down from the Punjaub 
to the point where the rail meets the river, 
it would be unremunerative to unload and 
consign the cargo to the more expensive con¬ 
veyance of the rail. By those who advocate 
this scheme, a company has been formed to 
navigate the Indus and its confluents by 
steamers and barges adapted to the depth 
and character of the streams. The autho¬ 
rities who maintain this view affirm that it 
will be long before Northern and Western 
India will be in a condition to support rail¬ 
ways, and if ever it be, it must arise from the 
increased wealth and commercial power and 
requirements fostered by the more adequate 
navigation of the great rivers. 

Admiral Sir Charles Malcolm, late Com¬ 
mander of the Indian navy; Captain Woodley, 
one of the most experienced captains of river 
steam-vessels in the Indian service; the late 
chief engineers «f Bengal, Madras, and Bom¬ 
bay; Messrs. Boulton and Watt; Mr. Fair- 
bairn of Manchester; Mr. Penn, Mr. Miller, 
Mr. Summers, Mr. Wliite, shipbuilder, of 
Cowes; Mr. Steele, shipbuilder, of Greenock; 
Captain Hall, C.B., late of the Nemesis, one of 
of the most distinguished officers in the Eng¬ 
lish navy; Captain Hoseason, whose talents 
and scientific attainments are well known in 
professional circles; Captain Cotton, brother 
of the celebrated Brigadier Cotton of Pesha¬ 
wur, and of the equally distinguished Colonel 
Cotton, chief engineer of Madras; Lieutenant 
Wood, of the Indian navy, who surveyed the 
Indus, and organised the navigation of that 
river as it is now conducted under the govern¬ 
ment;—are authorities in favour of the Indus 
navigation scheme to the exclusion of the 
Scinde railways. 

There is thus not only a wide field for 
action, but also for discussion, as to which 
plan will best suit the wants of Scinde, the 
* Report of Punjaub Government on Railways. 


Punjaub. and Western India. Both projects 
can hardly exist long together; and as the 
railway system is patronised by the East 
India Company, it is certain to be tried. In 
a chapter on the commerce of India, the 
report of the commissioners of the Punjaub 
will be given, which will probably satisfy the 
reader as to the commercial value of the 
respective schemes. In this place it is only 
appropriate to notice it as it regards the 
geography and topographical relations of 
the countries in question, and of the port 
of Kurrachee in relation to Scinde, the Indus, 
and the countries above them. 

Scinde is not so rich in ancient remains as 
many other parts of India. One of the most 
interesting is the ancient city of Brahminabad. 
Mr. Bellasis has investigated the ruins, and 
brought to light various objects of value to 
the antiquarian and historian. The city is 
situated about fifty miles east of the Indus, 
near the bank of what then must have been 
the principal channel when it debouched 
at Luckput, and which now forms the Eastern 
Nurra, with its dry channel, and its strings of 
lakes, or dhunds. About the eighth century 
of our era, if we are to credit the ancient 
histories of Scinde, Brahminabad was large 
and flourishing. No histories written since 
the ninth century refer to it as an existing 
city, whence it is inferred that about one 
thousand years ago it was destroyed by 
an earthquake—no uncommon catastrophe in 
Indian cities, and Scinde has suffered ex¬ 
tensively from such convulsions of nature. No 
portion of the city was swallowed up, and its 
ruins can be easily traced. A wall surrounds 
it, which is provided with gates at certain 
distances. This circumvallation is about 
four miles in extent, and probably enclosed a 
population of one hundred thousand persons, 
which is far below the amount that the old 
historians assign to it. The walls and houses 
are composed of well-made brick, and the 
building was well executed. Skeletons are 
found scattered in the ruins, as if the disaster 
came suddenly, leaving the people no oppor¬ 
tunity of escape. Glass and glazed earthen¬ 
ware were in use among the inhabitants, and 
their vessels of these materials were formed 
upon Greek models, and are exquisitely ele¬ 
gant. Carvings in cornelian and ivory, and 
glass enamels, elegantly executed, have been 
discovered. It has been observed, as a sin¬ 
gular circumstance, that the art of dyeing the 
onyx was known to the dwellers in Brahmin¬ 
abad one thousand years ago, as it is practised 
in Germany at the present day, by boiling in 
oil, and then heating. This art was also 
known in India proper, but has been long 
lost. Exquisite productions in ivory--toys, 



Chap. VII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


15' 


cups, and inlaid ornamental work—have also 
been found, similar in style of execution to 
the inlaying for which Bombay is so famous. 
Sets of ivory chessmen were among these 
delicate manufactures, similar in all respects 
to those now in use—confirming the opinion 
entertained by some Indian antiquaries,* that 
the game was known in India from very 
remote times. There is now proof that chess 
was a favourite amusement among the na¬ 
tions of India, not only when Europe was 
buried in the darkness of the early portion of 
the middle ages, hut long before Christianity 
shed its light upon western lands. 

Scinde and portions of Beloocliistan are, 
like Egypt, almost without rain. That this 
was not formerly a condition of the climate of 
Scinde Mr. Bellasis thinks proven by the 
condition of the bricks in Brahminabad, and 
other ruined cities in the same neighbour¬ 
hood; for it is remarkable that in rainless 
countries clay is seldom baked, the dryness 
of the atmosphere rendering that process 
unnecessary. In the ruined cities near the 
Indus the bricks were invariably baked, 
affording presumptive evidence that the cli¬ 
mate eleven hundred years ago was not what 
it is now; indeed, there must have been some 
considerable alterations to cause the river to 
abandon its course, and form for itself another 
fifty miles distant. Whether or not the meteor¬ 
ological inductions of the learned antiquary 
be correct, it is at least certain that he has 
started an interesting inquiry, and supplied 
data to guide it. 

It is supposed that the vestiges of for¬ 
mer generations discovered in the ruins of 
Brahminabad will throw light upon the in¬ 
terval between the Greek and Mohammedan 
periods of Indian history, aiding in filling up 
the historical gap which still exists, f One 
of the practical advantages at the present 
day of these antiquarian speculations has been 
the suggestion that by planting trees, and by 
cultivation, forced by irrigation, the climate 
of Scinde may be influenced so as to procure 
frequent rain. J 

It must not be supposed by the reader that 
Scinde is entirely without rain; it occasionally 
falls, and sometimes in furious storms, which 
smite the earth like a deluge. On a former 
page, when referring to the rainy seasons of 
India, notice was taken of such rain-falls in 
Scinde. The last signal instance of the kind 
occurred in 1851, during the months of July 
and August; there had been none other such 
for thirty years previously. The phenomena 
attending this exceptional season were re- 

* Sir William Jones. 

f General Woodburn. 

1 The Bomba)/ Times , March, 1856. 


markable. Reports were made to the com¬ 
missioner of Scinde concerning them, by whom 
they were communicated to the Bombay Geo¬ 
graphical Society. One of the assistant col¬ 
lectors, while visiting the country between 
Ghorabbarree and Kotree, near Hyderabad, 
observed that, although a steady wind blew 
from the south-west, the clouds invariably 
came from the east and north-east, and passed 
over the level country with a gyratory motion 
to the south-east, apparently turning off to¬ 
wards the latter direction by the western 
hills. When the wind blew only from the north, 
there was a cessation of rain. The effect on 
the delta of the Indus was to destroy cultiva¬ 
tion by the sudden and overwhelming rise of 
the river and the subsequent rains. The 
assistant commissioner had every reason to 
apprehend that, by the rising of the Oochta 
and Lewara Rivers, the low-lying town of 
Ghorabbarree would be entirely swept away.* 
In Kurrachee such effect was produced on 
many houses by the torrent of the Laree. 
The better class of the houses in Scinde have 
substantial stone foundations; the frames are 
of the babool, or even better wood; and to 
support a coating of prepared mud, with which 
they are covered, the short wood of the 
country, either tamarisk or mangrove, is 
made use of as lathes are in houses of English 
construction. The roofs are flat, and are pro¬ 
tected with mud only, f From the 10th of 
July to the 4th of August 9'99 inches of rain 
fell at Kotree (where a register was kept), 
whereas the usual fall of rain for the whole 
season at Hyderabad is about two inches. | 

In many portions of Scinde good water for 
drinking is scarce; the village W’ells often 
yield an inadequate supply; and where there 
is no cultivation or jungle, the small quantity 
of rain that falls is insufficient to yield a 
supply for any length of time. This is one 
cause of the limited population of large dis¬ 
tricts. 

Among what may be termed the phenomena 
of the climate of Scinde is a peculiarity referred 
to frequently by the people—that rain falls, at 
all events in Upper Scinde, in cycles of years, 
so that there are series of dry years and of 
rainy years of from forty to fifty in each 
series. The natives declare that thirty years 
ago rain fell every year during the hot season, 
and they foretell that a similar series of years, 
having their rainy months, is about to com¬ 
mence. There is abundant evidence in the 
remains of old bunds, and the marks of culti¬ 
vation along the western frontier, that the 
river streams at one time afforded a much larger 

* G. Elander, assistant to collector for land clearances. 

f H. B. Ellis, assistant commissioner. 

j J. Craig, assistant civil surgeon. 




158 HISTORY OF THE 

supply of water than they have done of late. 
The deputy-collector of Sewan informed Mr. 
Ellis, the assistant-commissioner of Scinde, at 
the close of 1851, that it was his impression, 
from his own observation, and what he had 
heard from the inhabitants, that such cycles 
of rainy seasons were characteristics of the 
climate of Scinde. 

Reference has been made on former pages 
to the frequency of earthquakes in India, and 
in Scinde in particular. On the frontier of 
Upper Scinde, in 1852, a disastrous instance 
of such a natural convulsion occurred. On 
the 24th of January, Kahun, the chief town 
of the Murrees, was totally destroyed. The 
people of Cutchee state that every three 
or four years shocks are felt in the Murree 
hills. In a report made to the Right Hon. 
Lord Viscount Falkland, a list of earthquakes 
for the year 1851 was officially drawn up:— 

January 17.—A slight shock felt at many places in the 
Punjaub. 

February 2 .—At Pooljee, near Sewan. 

February 4.—At Lahore and Wuzeerabad. 

April 19.—Three shocks felt at Gwadir, in Mekran; 
several houses destroyed. 


BRITISH EMPIRE [Chap. VIII. 

April 22 and 27-—Earthquakes felt at Oothnl and at 

Syaree, in Sup-Beila. 

December 13.—Beloochistan; at Sbahpore, in Cutchee- 

at the foot of the Murree hills. 

These statistics were communicated by 
Major John Jacob, C.B. In his letter ar 
inclosure from Lieutenant Merewether, of the 
Scinde horse, an officer who greatly distin¬ 
guished himself in the command of irregular 
cavalry, afforded more detailed information. 
That officer affirmed that the earthquake of 
the 9th of February, 1852, extended to Gun- 
dava, Dadur, Lakree, Pooljee, and Chuttur. 
About four o’clock in the morning, at the 
appearance of the false dawn, the first heav- 
ings of the earth gave indications of the 
approaching catastrophe. Successive shocks 
threw the people of the whole neighbouring- 
hill country into consternation, and consigned 
numbers, besides cattle and houses, to a com¬ 
mon burial. 

In any speculations which Englishmen in¬ 
dulge as to the cultivation and civilisation of 
Scinde, Beloochistan, and the Punjaub, account 
must be taken of the peculiar natural laws to 
which these regions are subjected. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

CEYLON-.—GEOLOGY—PRODUCTIONS—POPULATION—RELIGION—LITERATURE—CHIEF TOWNS. 


On the second page a general view of Ceylon 
was given, and it was then intimated that a 
more detailed description would appear in its 
appropriate plaoe. 

The island is situated between 5° 56' and 
9° 50' north latitude, and 80° and 82° east 
longitude. From its shape and position, it 
has been called “ a pearl on the brow of the 
Indian continent.” The superficial area is 
about two thousand four hundred square 
miles. It is bounded on the north-east by 
the Gulf of Manaar, by which it is separated 
from the mainland; its other limit is the 
Indian Ocean. 

The sea-shore presents more diversity of 
scenery in proportion than the continent. In 
many places it is marked by bare and bold 
rocks, which are for the most part pictu¬ 
resque ; generally the shores are wooded, 
especially with the cocoa-nut tree, and the 
scenes presented are characterised by rich 
oriental beauty. The interior is mountainous, 
the elevations ranging from six to eight thou¬ 
sand feet. The mountains form a sort of 
natural circular defence, of which the natives 
frequently availed themselves to resist foreign 
aggression. Primeval forests clothe the moun¬ 


tains, with few exceptions, to their summits. 
The cinnamon laurel, the coffee shrub, and 
other useful and agreeable trees and shrubs, 
flourish in or near these forests on spots where 
the situation favours their growth. 

The geological character of the island is 
almost uniform, being, with little exception, 
constituted of primitive rock. The exceptions 
consist of new formations, and are to be 
found in a few places on the shore. The 
varieties of primitive rock are numerous. 
Dolomite, quartz, and hornblende, are often 
met with, but granite greatly predominates. 
This rock, with gneiss, is found in such 
varieties as to test severely the skill of the 
geologist in classification. Grey-coloured 
granite, fine-grained, is sometimes found. A 
clergyman well acquainted with the geology 
of the island says,—“ I have seen very beau¬ 
tiful specimens from the sea-shore in the 
vicinity of Trincomalee, in which the quartz 
is of a grey or blackish coloured rock-crystal, 
and the felspar of a vivid fleshy hue.” In 
the Kandian provinces gneiss and sienite are 
found; the former is considered very beau¬ 
tiful, formed of quartz and white felspar, with 
black mica, and a multitude of garnets of a 




Chai*. VIII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


159 


pale colour. Hornblende and greenstone 
abound in the mountains ; the first is seldom 
seen in massive form, nor are the dolomite 
and quartz. Dolomite is to be met with as 
frequently as granite in great variety, “gene¬ 
rally crystaline, and of a pure white colour; 
and very frequently it is formed of rhombs, 
which a blow of a hammer separates with 
facility.” Embedded and in veins it is found 
in the neighbourhood of Kandy, and in the 
lower hills in other districts. In the vicinity 
of Trincomalee there is a remarkable hill, 
formed of quartz. Sandstone exists all along 
the coast—sometimes of a dun colour, and 
more frequently of a dull yellow. In the 
north the limestone formation prevails ; it 
contains multitudes of shells, generally of a 
drab or grey colour. When this rock is 
broken the fracture is conchoidal. 

The minerals of Ceylon are chiefly iron and 
manganese; others are obtained in scanty 
proportions. Iron exists all over the island 
in one or other of its forms—bog iron, mag¬ 
netic, red hematite, pyrites, specular iron, or 
blue phosphate. No large vein of iron ore 
has as yet been discovered. “ Black oxide of 
manganese occurs scattered and imbedded in 
gigantic rocks in small quantities, but at so 
great a distance inland, that the carriage 
would be too expensive to admit of a profit¬ 
able export trade. It is very remarkable that 
no other metals have as yet been discovered 
in a country where the nature of the rock 
would indicate their existence. However, 
although some authors have asserted that 
gold and mercury are found native in Ceylon, 
such we believe to be most incorrect, and we 
have never heard that either lead, copper, or 
tin, has as yet been discovered. 

“ Lanka-diva* abounds in every variety of 
the quartz family—hyalite, chalcedony, iron 
flint, and rock-crystal, which latter is found 
crystalised and massive in great quantities, 
and of a variety of colours. This is made 
use of by the Cingalese, who form lenses for 
spectacles from it, and employ it for statuary 
and ornamental purposes. Rose quartz, 
phrase, amethyst, and cat’s eye, are also 
abundant. The Ceylon cat’s eye is the most 
valuable in existence, and is much more prized 
there than in Europe. Topaz and schorl are 
also found in Ceylon ; the former is commonly 
of a yellowish or bluish white colour, but 
perfect crystals of it are very rarely to be met 
with. Common schorl occurs very plentifully 
in granitic rocks, and in some places it is 
mixed with felspar and quartz; tourmalin is 
occasionally to be met with, but of a very in¬ 
ferior description, and these are either of 
red, green, or honey colour. 

* The native name for Ceylon. 


“ In the granitic rock garnet, cinnamon stone, 
and pyrope abound, and the common garnet 
is found diffused in gneiss through the whole 
island; the crystals, however, are diminutive 
and ill-defined. The precious garnet occurs 
in hornblende rock in the neighbourhood of 
Trincomalee, but of an inferior description. 
Cinnamon stone has heretofore been exclu¬ 
sively found in Ceylon, where it is very abun¬ 
dant, although confined to particular districts, 
and is principally met with in Matura. It is 
found in very large masses of many pounds in 
weight, and small pieces of irregular form in 
the granitic alluvial. The zircon, called by 
the Cingalese £ Matura diamond,’ which is 
found in the island, is considered to be the 
best in the world; besides zircon and hva - 
cinth there is another species in Ceylon, which 
is opaque, uncrystalised, and massive. Zircon 
is found both of yellow, green, red, and light 
grey colours, which the native merchants dis¬ 
pose of respectively for topaz, tourmalin, 
rubies, and diamonds. Ceylon has for a con¬ 
siderable period been renowned for its rubies, 
of wdiich there are four species—namely, sap¬ 
phire, spinell, chrysoberyl, and corundum, 
which are found in granitic rock. The prin¬ 
cipal varieties of sapphires—such as red, 
purple, yellow, blue, white, and star stone— 
are met with, sometimes of large size, and in 
perfection, at Matura, Saffragam, and other 
places. The purple, or oriental amethyst, is 
rare, and the green still more so. Spinell is 
very rare, and is occasionally met with in the 
clay-iron ore in the Kandian provinces, where 
gneiss is abundant. Chrysoberyl is peculiarly 
rare, and is said generally to come from Safi-- 
fragam. Corundum is very plentiful at a 
place called Battagammana, where it is found 
on the banks of a small river called Agiri 
Kandura; it is of a brownish colour, and is in 
the form of large six-sided prisms. 

“ In the family of felspar Ceylon produces 
tablespar, Labrador stone, adularia, glassy 
felspar, compact felspar, and common felspar. 
The Labrador stone is found at Trincomalee, 
and adularia is plentiful in Kandy. Common 
hornblende is abundant, and glassy tremolite 
and pitch stone occur in the neighbourhood 
of Trincomalee. Mica, forming a component 
part of granite and gneiss, is very plentiful 
and frequently is found enclosed in these 
rocks, where it occurs in very extensive 
flakes, which the Cingalese employ for orna¬ 
mental purposes. Green earth is rather un¬ 
common, but is found in Lower Ouva of 
a green and pea-green colour. At Galle 
and Trincomalee common chlorite is found 
scattered through quartz. Talc, dolomite, 
carbonate of magnesia, and native carbonate 
of magnesia, are occasionally discovered. 





IfiO 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VIII. 


Sulphur and graphite also occur—the former 
rarely, but the latter is abundant in Saffragam. 
Nitrate of lime and nitre are very common, 
and the nitre caves appear to be formed of 
carbonate of lime and felspar. 

“ Salt lakes exist to a large extent in the 
district called Megampattoo, on the sea-shore, 
and which in all probability are supplied from, 
the sea, as the saline contents of both prove 
to be of a similar nature. 

“ All the soils of the island appear to have 
originated from decomposed granite rock, 
gneiss, or clay-iron stone, and in the majority 
of cases quartz is the largest, and frequently 
nearly the sole ingredient. It is very re¬ 
markable that the natural soils of Lanka-diva 
do not contain more than between one and 
three per cent, of vegetable substance, which 
may be attributed to the rapid decomposition, 
occasioned by a high degree of temperature, 
and heavy falls of rain. The most abundant 
crops are produced in the dark brown loam, 
which is formed from decomposed granite and 
gneiss, or in reddish loam, which is formed 
from Kabook stone, or clay-iron stone. The 
soils which have been found to produce infe¬ 
rior crops are those in which a large propor¬ 
tion of quartz is contained. The soil derived 
from clay-iron stone is of a reddish brown 
colour, and has the property of retaining 
water for a very long time, to which may be 
attributed its productive quality. To the 
practical and scientific agriculturist Lanka- 
diva affords abundant opportunity for expe¬ 
riment and investigation where the soil is in 
a state of nature, and unimproved by the ad¬ 
mixture of any description of manure.”* 1 

Ceylon is very favourably situated as to its 
water supply, a most important condition to 
the prosperity of a tropical country. The 
streams flowing from the higher grounds are 
numerous and pure, and in most parts of the 
island excellent springs supply the people. 
The remains of tanks and reservoirs are fre¬ 
quently traced, and on a vast scale, showing 
that the whole island at a very remote period 
was brought under high cultivation. So stu¬ 
pendous were those formations for the pur¬ 
pose of irrigation, that it has been observed 
of them by a competent authority, “ they were 
hardly surpassed by the kindred wonders of 
Egypt.” The British government has ne¬ 
glected to restore these great works, although 
it must be obvious that the soil might be 
made vastly more productive, that many ages 
past the population was many fold what it is 
now, and the wealth of the island propor¬ 
tionate. Sir Thomas Maitland, half a century 
since, proposed the restoration of the tanks. 
“ Giant’s Tank,” at Cattoe Rare, was espe- 
* Ceylon and the Cingalese. 


cially made the subject of this recommenda¬ 
tion, but the estimated cost was £25,000, and 
the time required to bring it back to some¬ 
thing like its former efficiency was three 
years. These estimates were probably erro¬ 
neous, but they were sufficient to deter the 
government from the undertaking. Some 
idea may be formed of the magnitude of 
that ancient work from the fact that villages 
have been formed within its limits, whose 
inhabitants have made several other tanks to 
irrigate their fields. Sir Emerson Tennant 
instituted inquiries, and urged the supreme 
government to undertake the matter, on the 
ground that it was “certain to repay the 
revenue the whole, and more than the whole, 
of the expenditure.” 

The productions of Ceylon may be inferred 
from its geological character, climate, and 
amount of irrigation. Its most characteristic 
production is lemon-grass, which is so called 
by the English because it exudes a powerful 
smell of lemon. The natives call it Lanka- 
diva, and the botanical name is Andropogon 
schenanthus. It is excellent pasture for buf¬ 
faloes, and yields an essential oil, which would 
prove an exquisite perfume. This grass 
grows on all the Kandian hills; its smell and 
taste are refreshing, unless too frequently 
used. 

The vegetables of Europe do not grow 
well, except in Newera Elba, but the indige¬ 
nous vegetables are luxuriant—such as sweet 
potatoes, yams, occus, bringals, &c. 

The chief cultivation is rice. The paddy 
fields are the grand reliance of the Cingalese 
husbandman. The mode of sowing and till¬ 
ing is much the same as throughout the East 
generally. The plough is drawn by oxen or 
buffaloes, which also tread orxt the corn. The 
superstition of the people causes in various 
ways much loss to the agriculturist, especially 
loss of time. Some of the ceremonies con¬ 
nected with the harvest are eminently absurd. 
“ The treading out of the paddy is performed 
upon a hard floor, prepared for the purpose 
by beating the clay; before the natives begin 
tfie work, however, a mystic rite and incanta¬ 
tion are observed by the owner of the paddy, 
in the expectation of preserving the produce 
from the evil spirits. The ceremony is per¬ 
formed by describing three circles, one within 
the other, on the centre of the floor, with the 
ashes of wood, which the owner scatters from 
a large leaf; the circles are equally quartered 
by a cross, the four points of which are ter¬ 
minated by a character resembling a written 
letter M • within the inner circle the owner 
lays some paddy-straw, upon which he places 
a few pieces of quartz and a small piece of the 
kohomba-tree, the whole of which he covers 






IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


161 


Chap. VIII.] 

over with paddy -straw; he then walks round 
the cabalistic figure three times, and stops at 
one ol the ends, salaams three times with up¬ 
raised hands, and finally prostrates himself 
upon the earth, all the time repeating incan¬ 
tations. When this ceremony has been com¬ 
pleted, the paddy is piled upon the concentric 
circles, and the buffaloes are immediately after 
urged to the task of treading the corn.” 
\\ heat and maize are also grown. 

Coffee is indigenous to the island ( Coffea 
Arabica). The natives have used the decoc¬ 
tion of the berry as long as anything definite 
in Cingalese history can be traced. The 
coffee now grown in the island is, however, 
generally supposed to be an importation from 
Java, where it was obtained from Mocha. 
The wild coffee of Ceylon is very inferior. 
The appearance of the cultivation is most 
pleasing. The bushes in the flowering sea¬ 
son are covered with silvery blossoms, which 
contrast finely with the deep green leaves. 
When the shrubs are in fruit, the appearance 
is also striking, the berries, when ripened, 
being of a deep red colour, harmonise with 
the foliage. The ordinary appearance of a coffee 
plantation is that of an extensive garden of 
evergreens, with occasional forest trees among 
them, which are preserved to shelter the 
plantations. 

The sugar-cane is cultivated with some 
success. 

Various plants and shrubs, profitable for 
commerce, are also cultivated. Tobacco, of a 
quality highly valued in the Madras presi¬ 
dency, has for some years received attention 
from cultivators. 

Cotton has been neglected, but some fine 
specimens have been grown. The opinion 
of an experienced American planter was 
taken a few years ago as to the adaptation 
of the soil and climate to this article, and he 
made the following report :—“ I am of opi¬ 
nion, from what I saw of the climate, tempe¬ 
rature, and soil, that Ceylon will produce 
cotton equal in quality, and wi.en the com¬ 
paratively small amount of capital required 
is considered, I doubt not it may even pro¬ 
duce the article cheaper than ice can in 
America, where a large sum must be laid out 
for labour, and where the expense of food 
and clothing is much greater than the cost of 
importing labour into Ceylon, independently 
of the risk of a mortality among the labourers 
after they had been purchased.” 

Under the Dutch rule indigo was culti¬ 
vated, and considerable quantities exported; 
since the British acquired the island that cul¬ 
tivation has fallen off. The plant is indige¬ 
nous, and the soil adapted to yield a superior 
quality under proper management. 

VOL. I. 


One of the most curious productions of 
Ceylon is the water-nut ( Ambvprasudana ). 
The natives rub the nut over the interior of 
their “water chatties,” by which means all 
impure and earthy matter which the water 
holds in solution is precipitated, rendering 
it healthy. Even muddy water, and water 
which, although apparently clear, is known 
to be unhealthy, are purified by this nut. 

Various fine trees, which render luxurious 
and wholesome fruit, and some of which, by 
their foliage, bark, or timber, are valuable for 
commerce, are natural to the soil of Ceylon. 

The cocoa-nut tree holds a prominent place 
among these, encircling nearly the whole 
island. The appearance of this tree is very 
imposing everywhere, but viewed from the 
sea upon the shores of Ceylon it is especially 
so. Growing to a height considerably more 
than a hundred feet, its form, leaf, and fruit 
all picturesque, it is an attractive object, and 
groves of these trees present an aspect so 
tropical to Europeans, and so peculiar, as 
always to excite their interest, especially 
when first seen. Europeans, also, generally 
relish the arrack distilled from the juice of 
the flower, and the sugar, although deep- 
coloured and coarse-grained, which is pre¬ 
pared from the same source. The natives 
eat the pulp of the green fruit, and it yields a 
refreshing drink, which orientals and occi¬ 
dentals alike prize. With the ripe fruit, and 
the oil extracted from it, English people are 
well acquainted. The refuse, or oil cakes, is 
also known in England to be good food for 
cattle. Cordage, matting, mattress-stuffing, 
&c., are used in Europe when beaten from 
the husks of the cocoa-nut. The young 
branches are used as brooms; the fibre as 
cordage; the leaves as thatch; and when 
burned they produce a useful alkali. To the 
Cingalese, especially those living near the 
coast, the cocoa-nut tree is of unspeakable 
value in sickness as well as health, for the 
bark oil is an emollient in cutaneous diseases, 
and the root affords a decoction, the medicinal 
virtue of which is much relied upon. It is 
probable that articles of furniture made from 
the cocoa-nut tree will be ultimately used in 
England, for the wood takes a fine polish, 
and has a beautiful vein. 

The areka, or betel-nut tree ( Areha cate¬ 
chu), is also a useful growth of the island. It 
is a tall palm, with handsome feathery foliage, 
which is attached to the tree by a tough 
impervious bark, which is used by the natives 
for preserving drink or rice on their journeys. 
The nut is used for various native purposes; 
and when exported is also turned to account 
by foreigners. 

The bread-fruit tree ( Artrocarpus incisa ) 

Y 



162 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. YIII. 


Las been too frequently described in popular 
works to require description here. The 
natives make a curry of the fruit, and the 
British boil it or fry it as a vegetable. 

The orange-tree is especially beautiful in 
Ceylon, and noted for the richness of its 
odour. 

The nutmeg, clove, and other sweet spice 
shrubs, are interesting in appearance, de¬ 
lightful in odour, and valuable as materials 
of commerce. 

The cinnamon ( Lauras cinnamorum) is 
well known as a staple of Ceylon commerce. 
The anti-free-trade system, so long pursued 
by the government, has, however, oppressed 
the cultivation, and thrown the trade to a 
great extent into the hands of the Dutch at 
Java. By levying and maintaining an export 
duty for many years, the production has been 
repressed, to the permanent injury of the 
colony. The cinnamon laurel is not so beau¬ 
tiful as some others of the useful shrubs and 
trees noticed, but it is nevertheless pleasing 
to the eye. 

The jack-tree ( Artrocarpus integrifolia) is 
one of the enormous species of trees indige¬ 
nous to Ceylon. This tree is elegant in 
form, most agreeable to the eye, and it extends 
a grateful shade by its far-spreading branches. 
The fruit is of enormous size, varying from 
six inches to two yards in circumference, the 
form being oval. Both the trunk and branches 
of this tree bear fruit. “ Their external cover¬ 
ing is rough, and of a greenish hue, and their 
section of a whitish colour, containing a number 
of kernels, enveloped in a yellowish coating, 
which is of a most luscious flavour, but pecu¬ 
liarly disagreeable to the olfactory nerves. The 
kernels are the size of a pigeon’s egg, and, when 
cooked, make good food, and excellent curry. 
The timber is of a yellow colour, but when 
polished with beeswax it approaches to a 
light-coloured mahogany, and all ordinary 
furniture is manufactured of it.” 

The mulberry-tree flourishes in various 
parts of the island, but little use is made of it. 
The production of silk in Ceylon ought to be 
considerable. 

The tala, or taliput (Carypha umbra- 
culifera ), is a magnificent palm, which grows 
to nearly a hundred feet in height. The 
appearance of this remarkable tree is very 
graceful, being about nine feet in circumfer¬ 
ence, measured near the ground, and tapering 
gradually away to the top. The leaves are 
often twenty-five feet in length, and more 
than half that breadth; they droop, and 
spread out at the top, like a Siamese um¬ 
brella. The flower is very large, and of a 
bright yellow hue. This is enclosed in a 
pod, or sheath, which, when the flower comes 


to maturity, bursts with a loud explosion. 
The expanded blossom displays its rich colour 
for three months, when it disappears gra¬ 
dually, and a plum-like fruit ripens. The 
natives aver that the blossoms never arrive at 
full perfection until the tree is half a century 
old, when it begins to die, and at the age 
of about a hundred years withers away. The 
uses to which this splendid specimen of 
Ceylon palms is put are very various. The 
trunk contains a pith, which the natives dry, 
and make into sweet cakes of a delicious 
flavour. This pith is formed into a sort of 
meal, and also flour, which the natives employ 
for divers culinary purposes. The leaves are 
used for state fans by persons of dignity; 
they are also converted into a species of ; 
papyrus, and, like the cocoa-nut leaf, form a 
good thatch for houses. 

The mee-tree is another of these huge 
specimens of the Ceylon forest. It bears 
minute white blossoms of an unpleasant 
odour. These are easily shaken down by 
the slightest breeze, and cover the vicinity 
like flakes of snow, so profuse are they. 
When driven into the tanks by a higher than 
ordinary wind, they float for a short time on 
the surface, and then decomposing, spread a 
peculiar pestiferous influence. The fruit is 
chiefly used to express from it a pungent oil, 
which the natives apply to a great many 
purposes. 

The ebony ( Dy op sir as ebonum) is a very 
notable tree of Ceylon. The jet black colour 
of the wood, together with its peculiar hard¬ 
ness, and the polish of which it is susceptible, 
make it valuable as an export. The foliage 
is nearly as black as the wood, but the bark 
of the trunk is a bright silver grey, almost 
white. The branches shoot out about thirty 
feet from the root, and droop, presenting a 
mournful appearance. It might appropriately 
displace the cypress above the graves of the 
dead. 

The calamander (Dyospyrus ldrsuta) is a 
variegated ebony, and of great value. This 
tree has ceased to be so common in the forests 
as formerly, having been extensively sought 
after for exportation, and for the manufacture 
of furniture. The prevailing colour of the wood 
is black, but it is mottled with a rich brown. 
It takes as high a polish as the ebony proper, 
and is as close grained. The appearance of 
the tree is magnificent. 

The red sandal-tree, and the satin-wood 
tree, are also still to be met with in the 
forests, but are becoming scarce, the satin- 
wood being much used in the island for 
household articles of taste, and the sandal¬ 
wood being in great request for exportation. 

The kabook-tree attains an immense growth. 



Chap. VIII., 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST 


163 


The timber is hard, and of a reddish dun 
colour, not pleasing to the eye. It nearly 
always fastens its roots near springs, and 
with the condition of a supply of water 
will flourish in any situation whatever. It 
is found near the sea, in the interior, upon 
the level plain, and high up on the steep 
mountain. 

The bo-tree (Ficus religiosa ) is one of the 
most noted trees in Ceylon, because sacred to 
Buddha. It grows to a great elevation, is 
richly umbrageous, and its branches and 
leaves are exquisitely formed. The last- 
mentioned are heart-shaped, and so sacred to 
the superstitious people, that it is sacrilege to 
carve their form on any article for common 
use, or on any building, except on temples 
and palaces, and their respective furniture. 
The blossoms are milk-white, except a golden 
tinge within the centre; they are bell-shaped, 
and extremely beautiful, both in colour and 
perfection of form. These trees grow to a 
great age, and are jealously guarded by the 
people. 

The stately tamarind and the glorious 
banyan are to be seen in insular as well as 
peninsular India. The citron, -wild jessa¬ 
mine, and a host of flowering shrubs, adorn 
the wood scenery of this beautiful isle, while 
the perfumes of these sweet offsprings of the 
forest constantly load the delicious air. 

The floral productions of the island rival 
those of most parts of the mainland. There 
are few places, except some' spots in the 
Deccan and Cashmere, to be compared with it 
for flowering shrubs; and only in the valley 
just named, and some spots at the foot of the 
Himalayas, can such floral wonders be seen 
as charm the eye, and captivate the sense, in 
Ceylon. 

Trees in the Ceylon forests are very gene¬ 
rally attended by parasites. The pepper- 
vine, and many rich flowering creepers, cling 
to the trunks, and form their delicate tracery 
around them. 

The produce of the island of a European 
character does not abound, and the markets 
for such commodities are consequently dear. 
Mutton generally costs two shillings a pound; 
fresh butter is dearer; kid, which is much 
used instead of mutton, bears about the same 
price as mutton in England. Ham, bacon, 
tongues, &c., are imported, and are costly. 
Beef is easily procured at the price usual in 
England, but it is seldom good. Pork is 
plentiful, but good bacon is seldom cured. 
Poultry of all kinds is sold at rates similar 
to those in London, but it is inferior to that 
of England, unless kept some time and fat¬ 
tened by Europeans. There is game to 
requite the hunter or the fowler—deer, the 


wild hog, and various birds, all more or less 
suitable for food. 

The fisherman, who for sport or profit 
pursues the piscatory art in the waters of 
Ceylon, will find his labour requited. The 
seir fish is the most valued; it resembles in 
colour and flavour the salmon, but is sup¬ 
posed to excel the fish so much prized in Bri¬ 
tain. Some weigh as much as twenty pounds. 

The bull’s-eye pomfret is a beautiful fish, 
with head and body of a Vermillion tint—the 
scales being bright yellow, as if tangled with 
gold. Mackerel is very plentiful, and soles, 
whiting, and other fish abound. 

The mullet is much valued; it is taken by 
a sort of small harpoon at night, the fishermen 
waving lighted torches, which bring the crea¬ 
tures to the surface in surprising numbers. 
The river fish also abound, and are delicious- 
eating. 

The species of shell-fish along the coast 
are numerous, but few of them are fit for food. 
Only in one particular place are oysters 
edible, and for these divers descend and strike 
them with hammers from the rocks. 

The fisheries of Ceylon are neglected, and 
there is an actual importation of dry fish for 
food, while the rivers and seas are rich with 
finny treasures. No trouble is taken to dry 
and preserve such sorts as are suitable for the 
process. 

The animals mostly used by Europeans for 
food have been already noticed. The island 
abounds with wild animals, beasts, and rep¬ 
tiles of nearly every species known to con¬ 
tinental India, and some that are peculiar. 

The elephant of Ceylon is supposed to 
be a very superior creature of his species. 
The oldest naturalists and historians, who 
refer to the natural history of Lanka-diva, 
express themselves strongly as to the superior 
quality of the ivory of the elephants’ tusks 
exported thence. Both ancient and modern 
writers have affirmed that the Phoenicians 
shipped large numbers of elephants from this 
island to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea; 
and it is alleged that those used in the 
Punic wars were obtained thence. It is in¬ 
disputable, that the monarchs of continental 
India highly valued the Ceylon elephants for 
their superior strength, docility, and courage. 
Some modern writers affirm that the elephants 
of South Africa are much superior to those of 
Asia. The narrative of the great African 
hunter, Gordon Cumming, and that of the 
celebrated missionary to the Bechuanas, Mof- 
fatt, would certainly lead to such a conclusion. 
According to Cuvier, the Indian and African, 
elephants manifest much diversity of form; 
he pronounces in favour of the former.. 
Tauconier says that the African elephant 





161 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VIII. 


recognises by tokens of extraordinary intel¬ 
ligence the superiority of the former. These 
creatures are now only to be found in the 
thickest forests of the interior. 

The elk, the finest of the deer tribe, bears 
a miniature resemblance to the fossil elk of 
Ireland. Mr. Sirr, in his work on Ceylon, 
notices the smallest of the species in the fol¬ 
lowing terms:—“ It is called by some natu¬ 
ralists the musk-deer, the Linnaean name of 
which is Moschus meminna, the Cingalese 
walmeenya. These diminutive creatures, 
perfect in their proportions, are the most 
exquisitely lovely of all quadrupeds; the 
beauty of their delicate limbs, lustrous eyes, 
spotted skins, and graceful forms, baffling all 
description. We had a full-grown male, 
whose height did not exceed ten inches, and 
length fourteen; the throat, neck, and sto¬ 
mach where milk-white; the remainder of 
the body was grey, regularly striped with 
black, over which w T ere equi-distant yellow 
spots. The head gradually tapered to the 
snout, whilst from either side of the mouth 
protruded a small but perfectly-shaped tusk; 
the eyes and ears large and open, the tail 
short, and the weight under five pounds.” 
The Kandians prize the albinos more than 
any other of the deer family. 

The wild buffalo is a fierce and vindictive 
animal, who often turns on the hunter with 
obstinate and ferocious courage. 

The leopard is said to be marked by this 
peculiarity—that he cannot draw back the 
claws within the paw, as other varieties of 
the species. They are very powerful, attain¬ 
ing sometimes to the length of seven feet and 
a half. They are not willing to attack man, 
except in self defence ; but are destructive to 
cattle and dogs. This is the most fonnidable 
animal to the natives, because of the loss of 
property occasioned by it. The bear is, how¬ 
ever, more dangerous to man personally, for 
although a small animal, his strength is great, 
and his courage daring: he never fails to 
attack man if he approach. 

The wild hog is powerful and ferocious— 
not only ready to defend himself against the 
hunter, but also to attack him, and almost 
any animal that enters the precincts of its 
haunts, which are the thickly-wooded dis¬ 
tricts. The flesh is much prized by epicures. 

The jackal infests the jungles, as does also 
tne ichneumon. Monkeys, squirrels, sloths, 
weazels, porcupines, and flying foxes are nu¬ 
merous in the low woods and in the forests. 
The porcupine is injurious to the cocoa-nut 
tree, digging down to the tender roots and 
destrojdng the life of the tree. 

Rats are almost a plague in the island; 
they are to be seen in the houses and in the 


fields, and display the greatest boldness in 
the presence of man. “ The musk-rat will 
occasionally measure twelve inches from the 
snout to the tail; the head is slender, the 
upper jaw projecting considerably beyond 
the lower, the whiskers bushy, long, and 
white, the colour of the coat grey, but the 
feet are totally devoid of hair, and the tail is 
thick at the root. The effluvia of this crea¬ 
ture is most powerful; and, if it runs over 
any edible, the article becomes so impregnated 
with the peculiar smell as to be totally unfit 
for use.” * 

Reptile nature is prolific in the hot climate 
of Ceylon. Crocodiles are very large, some¬ 
times measuring twenty feet in length: they 
differ much in the formation of the head from 
the crocodiles of the Ganges. Nothing can 
exceed in ferocity these monsters, who will 
invariably attack man when opportunity oc¬ 
curs. They swarm in the tanks as well as in 
the rivers, and after the rains take up their 
haunts on low inundated ground. In seasons 
of long-continued drought they become espe¬ 
cially dangerous, as they make their way from 
the dried-up tanks to the rivers. 

The cobra-di-capello, or hooded snake, is 
regarded by the natives as sacred; and al¬ 
though its deadly sting is feared, they will not 
kill it. It can hardly be said to be wor¬ 
shipped, notwithstanding the reverence paid 
to it, but formerly it was the object of adora¬ 
tion. There are two species of the cobra— 
one, of a light colour, is called by the natives 
high caste, and the other, of a dark colour, 
they call low caste. The tic-prolonga, 
although not so large, is more dangerous; 
the attack is sudden, and the sting almost 
momentarily fatal. It attacks all creatures 
that come within range of its venomous 
power. 

The cobra has a formidable enemy, which 
is also numerous in the island. “ The beau¬ 
tiful little creature, the ichneumon, is the 
declared foe to this snake, and is invariably 
the assailant: the animal springs upon the 
back of the snake and seizes the nape of the 
neck, and never uncloses its teeth until 
the snake is lifeless. Those who have wit¬ 
nessed the battle, say that the cobra always 
tries to escape; and that before commencing 
the fight the ichneumon runs to a particular 
plant and eats a portion, and this serves as an 
antidote to the reptile’s poison. We are 
rather incredulous upon this latter point, but 
are quite certain that the ichneumon will 
assail the snake in the open air, and as scru¬ 
pulously avoid the encounter in an enclosed 
space.” •[ 

The monster snake of Ceylon is the 
* Ceylon and the Cingalese. f Ibid. 







IN INDIA AND THE EAST 


1G5 


Ciiap. VIII.] 

amaronda (of tlie genus Python). It mea¬ 
sures from seventeen to twenty-five feet, and 
attacks jackals, deer, and young Imffaloes— 
entwining itself round them like the boa- 
constrictor, it crushes its prey, and then 
covers it with saliva before devouring. It 
seldom attacks man. 

The insect world is very numerous, as 
might he expected in such a climate. The 
fire-flies are, as in continental India, brilliant 
and beautiful. Beetles exist in endless variety, 
and are much admired by Europeans. The 
white ants are as destructive as on the shores 
of the peninsula; and many other noxious 
insects torment the inhabitants and quadru¬ 
peds. The tick, which attaches itself to the 
leaves of trees, will, if shaken down, attack 
men or horses, drawing blood with painful 
voracity. These creatures will insinuate 
themselves into the soft flesh of horses and 
dogs, especially the latter, driving the animals 
mad with pain. 

The land-leech is one of the most torment¬ 
ing creatures in the island, every morass and 
jungle containing it. No clothing is imper¬ 
vious to its attacks: it insinuates itself through 
garments or between their folds, and, fasten¬ 
ing upon the flesh, gorges itself with blood. 
Many Europeans suffer from inflammation and 
ulceration following their bite, and loss of 
life sometimes ensues. Animals are often 
destroyed by them, especially sheep. They 
infest the grass and wooded heights. 

The birds of Ceylon rival those of the 
neighbouring continent. The wild peacock 
is a singularly beautiful creature. The Cin¬ 
galese starling has a plumage varied and 
pleasing. The blue-rock pigeon, jungle crow, 
and rhinoceros-bird, are remarkable specimens 
of the ornithological characteristics of the 
island. It is contended by some authors on 
natural history that'“ Lanka-diva” is richer 
than any other country in birds of gay plum¬ 
age and fine form. “ The Paradise flycatcher, 
or sultana bulbul of the Hindoos (Muscipita 
Paradisi), is met with in jungles, gardens, 
and shrubberies, from the warmer parts of the 
Himalayas to the most southern extremity of 
Ceylon. It is a peculiarly graceful bird, the 
body and long sweeping tail of the male being 
white, with the primaries black, edged with 
white. The body and tail of the female are 
of a reddish brown, with the breast-feathers 
clouded grey.” * 

In the high regions of the island, a bird 
which is common in the Himalayas is occa¬ 
sionally found—“ the monaul, golden fowl, 
or Impeyan pheasant (Lophophonis Impel /- 
anus). The male bird ha3 a remarkably 
beautiful plumage, its crest, head, and throat 
* The Birds of Asia. 


being of a rich bronzy green; the middle of 
the neck is purple, glossed with a coppery 
hue; back and wing coverts rich purple, each 
feather tipped with bronzy green; the legs 
and feet are of a greenish ash, whilst across 
the lower part of the back is a band of pure 
white. The female is buffy-brown, mixed 
with black and white. A more beautiful 
object can scarcely be imagined than this 
gorgeously plumaged bird taking his lofty 
and sweeping flight through the air, full in 
the light of the noon-day sun, the rays of 
which are reflected in surpassing brilliancy 
from his brightly-tipped feathers.” * 

All the birds of the island are not to be 
admired. The carrion crow is a common 
tormenter. These ravenous creatures will 
tear food from the hands of children, ravish 
a morsel from the teeth of a dog, and even fly 
into apartments, making prizes from the table 
around which Europeans are seated. 

“ The devil bird ” is remarkable for its 
“discordant and unearthly calls” in the 
evening. These are believed by the natives 
to be omens of evil to all who hear them. 

The Brahmin kite is an ill-looking creature, 
the relentless enemy of the tortoise, which he 
bears on high, and dashes down iqron some 
jutting rock. He is also a fierce and effective 
foe of the snake and serpent. 

Ceylon has often been called “ a land of con¬ 
tradictions” as to its animal haunts—beasts, 
birds, reptiles, and insects, being often found 
where persons acquainted with other tropical 
climates would never look for them, or expect 
to find them. Thus crocodiles often wander, 
as before shown, into the jungles. The black 
adder and scorpion are fond of entering human 
habitations, and coiling themselves up in the 
bed-clothes, or in garments that may happen 
to lie in their way. The leopard approaches 
the village wells to drink, although the river 
may not be distant, and will walk quietly into 
the enclosures of houses or bungalows, and 
carry off dogs or poultry. The wild elephant 
will break his way into gardens, and, crush¬ 
ing down fences, take up his abode for the 
night close to a human habitation. The red- 
leg partridge is sometimes shot where aquatic 
birds might only be supposed to come within 
range of the sportsman’s gun ; and the snipe is 
bagged in localities such as his species in other 
countries are supposed to avoid. This may 
possibly be accounted for by the fact that 
hill, dale, vale, river, and ravine—cultivated 
ground, morass, tank, paddy field, and sea¬ 
shore, are all found within a comparatively 
small compass. Whatever the rationale may 
be, it is unquestionably the fact that ani¬ 
mal life of all sorts seems to find means of 
* The Birds of Asia. 



1GG 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VIII. 


preserving itself within the island in spots not 
usually adapted to the species which, never¬ 
theless, resort to them. An exemplification 
of this occurs in the pages of a light and 
agreeable writer in the following instance :— 
“ We had frequently camped in swamps of 
most ominous appearance, and had closed our 
mosquito nets with suspicious care, when, to 
our surprise, not an enemy appeared; while 
here, on the banks of a dry stream, with not 
a drop of water to generate the race, we were 
attacked in the most cruel manner. Venus 
Anadyomene, rising from the sea, was the 
original type of the mosquito : like her, the 
insect springs ephemeral and beautiful from 
the water, leaving its shell behind : and once 
fairly launched into this upper world, never 
ceases from stinging and tormenting miserable 
humanity when an occasion offers.” * 

The tortoise, or land turtle, is found in 
great numbers in the beds as well as on the 
banks of rivers. 

The large size of most animals natives of 
Ceylon is remarkable. Generally, island 
animals aie smaller than those of their species 
inhal iting neighbouring continents, but this 
is not the case in “Lanka-diva.” The ele¬ 
phants, as already shown, grow to a great 
size; so do leopards and wild hogs. The 
peacock is only equalled in size and beauty 
by that of Pegu and Tenesserim, but in 
Ceylon the bird is strong and fierce, attack¬ 
ing snakes, and even the cobra, with success, 
so that vast numbers of reptiles perish by 
them. These birds live in great flocks, and 
when in flight, their magnificent plumage 
reflecting the bright clear light in so pure 
an atmosphere, presents a spectacle of won¬ 
drous beauty. The adjutant bird is larger 
here than elsewhere, measuring generally 
seven feet in height, and more than fifteen 
from tip to tip of the spread wings. They 
appear as if subjected to some stern disci¬ 
pline, as they are ranged motionless along the 
rivers in long line, watching eagerly until the 
appearance of a fish, when they promptly 
seize the prey. They are equally expert in 
seizing and killing cats, dogs, snakes, and 
even large serpents ; indeed, the adjutant bird, 
peacock, carrion crow, and Brahmin kite, by 
their incessant warfare upon reptiles, prevent 
the latter, in such a climate, and with such 
a superficial configuration as Ceylon, from 
becoming overwhelmingly numerous. It is 
astonishing, considering the vast number of 
them thus destroyed, that they remain so 
numerous in the island as they are. An 
experienced traveller writes of forest life in 
Ceylon,—“ Hundreds of polychromatic birds 
(songsters would suit the sentence better, but 
* The Bungalow and the Tent. 


unfortunately, the birds in Ceylon don’t sing) 
sport in the higher branches, and clouds of 
butterflies, ‘the Cynthias of the hour,’ that, 
large as larks, and as flaunting as dahlias, 

“ * Make the rose’s blush of beauty pale. 

And dim the rich geranium’s scarlet blaze,’ 

flit and hover about, and, in their ‘ frank lusti- 
nesse,’ as Spenser has it, gambol amongst the 
gorgeous tropical foliage, and chase each other 
from mead to flower.” The red ants, hornets, 
centipedes, leeches, land-lice, &c., are of ex¬ 
traordinary size, and the tick, although not 
bigger than the head of a large pin, when 
gorged with blood, will swell until it is 
nearly a quarter of an inch broad. 

The trees and foliage, like the animal life, 
are large in comparison with those of their 
species on, at all events, the neighbouring 
coasts of Coromandel and Malabar. Flowers, 
also, grow to huge size, as well as beau¬ 
tiful perfection. The red lotus, which is ex¬ 
tremely pretty, surprises by its magnitude, and 
the white lotus rivals it in magnificent appear¬ 
ance. 

Nature seems as if in a perpetual struggle 
to produce the beautiful and wonderful, but at 
the same time constrained to yield creatures 
most noxious in strange variety, and with all 
conceivable means of inflicting torture. These 
latter cause great drawbacks to the en¬ 
joyment by Europeans of the lovely scenery 
of the island. One “ who has hunted in 
Ceylon” has expressed the pleasure and pain 
of country pastime there in a light at once 
humorous and instructive :—“ What picture 
can be more delicious and enticing, and who 
would not give up the stale enjoyments of 
a smoky city for an hour of such an exist¬ 
ence ? But before the enterprising and en¬ 
raptured Londoner does give up the comforts 
and sports of his native land, let him first 
consider the reverse of the picture, and then 
decide. In the first place, three, probably, 
out of the four individuals of our party are 
suffering from fevers, dysenteries, agues, 
leeches, or land-lice! The refreshing tea is 
probably sucked from a beery bottle; the 
chicken, from too close contact with the 
heated body of some nigger, has become dis¬ 
agreeably lukewarm; the cheroot, having 
been sat upon several times during the ride, 
can be made to answer no other purpose than 
that of exhausting the temper and lights of 
the smoker; the tree is still umbrageous, but 
every shaking twig or leaf causes one to 
glance furtively upwards, to see that no snake 
or scorpion is crawling above you, ready to 
plump on your nose at any moment. You 
may, indeed, close your eyes—in fact, that 
you probably would do—to keep out the eye- 







IN INDIA AND THE EAST 


1G7 


Chap. VIII.] 

flies that swarm around you, but as for sleep¬ 
ing, or ruminating on anything peaceful or 
agreeable, the red ants, almost as large 
as wasps, or the soothing hum of Brob- 
dignagian hornets, of bat-like dimensions, en¬ 
tirely put that out of the question. It is my 
humble opinion that the annoyances, and 
heat, and dirt of an out-door existence in a 
tropical country far exceed any pleasure or 
benefit to be derived from it. I would rather 
shoot grouse on a hill-side in Scotland, or 
follow the fox across any tolerable country in 
England, than return a second Gordon Cum- 
ming in the matter of wild sports. Then, 
ambitious Briton, crede experto, trust one 
who has tried, and stay at home. Ceylon is, 
in truth, the paradise of insectivora. The 
worms attain the length of three or four feet, 
the beetles are the size of mice, the ants of 
wasps; spiders’ webs are tough enough to 
pull one’s hat off, and the bite of a hornet 
or a wasp is sufficient to sw T ell you up like a 
human toad. All these animals, and many 
others are most tender and unceasing in their 
attentions to strangers, and ‘ pasture on the 
pleasures of each place,’ whether nose, eyes, 
mouth, or ears, with a zest and pertinacity 
that is anything but soothing to the owner of 
the soil.” 

The climate of Ceylon has been exceedingly 
extolled, and in certain seasons and localities 
the praise seems merited; but there is ex¬ 
cessive moisture in some portions, while 
others are dry, and subject to intense heat. 
On the whole, the climate is less healthy than 
on the neighbouring continent. The sana¬ 
torium of Sattara, in the Deccan, far surpasses 
in salubrity and rivals in beauty any part of 
the island. Europeans are much subject to 
cholera, especially in the evenings, after a 
full meal, and indulgence in the tempting and 
delicious fruits which follow that repast. 
They are also harassed with enlarged and 
indurated livers, and a very short residence 
leads to functional derangement of that 
organ. The peculiar yellow complexion of 
Europeans long resident in Ceylon strikes all 
new arrivals. Fever and ague are common 
in almost every part of the country, and in 
several of the towns. A residence in the 
capital and its vicinity is almost sure to 
entail such complaints upon natives of Eng¬ 
land. Those who hunt in the jungles and 
forests are more in danger from the jungle 
fever than from elephants, bears, leopards, 
cobras, adders, scorpions, and all the other 
powerful or dangerous creatures that make 
their haunts there. Europeans who superin¬ 
tend the great roads are frequently carried 
away by fever; and merchants and their 
agents who visit the interior and even such 


as reside in the healthiest coast towns, pay a 
severe penalty in exhausted strength or 
fevered veins for their pursuit of wealth. A 
competent witness thus describes the climate, 
which, with the characteristics of the country 
already described, will account for its general 
insalubrity :—“ I am not aware of any country 
that presents such opposite peculiarities of 
climate as Ceylon, or in which an admirer of 
continual moisture, or unbroken drought, 
could so easily suit himself. The island is 
swept alternately by the south-west and 
north-east monsoons, each of which remain 
in full force for six months; but the south¬ 
west monsoon, saturated with the enormous 
evaporation from the tropical ocean and the 
supposed wet land of Abyssinia, brings far 
more rain than the north-east monsoon; in 
fact, the rain in some parts of the island 
during the time it prevails is incessant. 
After discharging abundant moisture in its 
south-westerly course, it is at length inter¬ 
cepted at its rain-level by the mountains of 
the interior, and completely emptied of its 
moisture, and thence it continues its course 
indeed over the north-east part of the island, 
but with the material difference of having 
totally changed its nature from a cold and 
saturating to a dry and almost parching 
wind. In November the north-east monsoon 
commences to blow, and continues during five 
or six months, but, in consequence of its 
having traversed far cooler seas and drier 
lands than the south-west monsoon, it bears 
comparatively little moisture; and the rain 
does not extend beyond the mountains of the 
interior: so that whilst the south-west half 
of the island has six months’ fine weather, 
and is saturated for the other six, the north¬ 
east portion has ten months’ consecutive, un¬ 
broken, fine weather, during wdiich not a drop 
of rain falls, and only two months’ moisture. 
This peculiarity of the monsoon may account 
for the fact of all the tanks, the gigantic 
nature of which render Ceylon so interesting 
as telling of bygone wealth and prosperity, 
being situated in the north-east portion of 
the island. Standing on Lady Horton’s Walk 
during the south-west monsoon, and looking 
towards the north-east, you can distinguish 
the line in the clouds distinctly marked where 
the rain ceases abruptly. And whilst the 
hills and mountains immediately around you 
are rank and reeking with excessive moisture, 
the background is filled up with mountains 
that for ten months scarcely see rain, display¬ 
ing those hazy roseate tints that constitute so 
peculiar a beauty in Indian scenery, and that 
tell plainly of a parched soil cropping out 
through a stunted and scanty vegetation.” * 

* Edward Sullivan, Esq. 




1G8 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Oiiap. VIII. 


Tlie scenery of Ceylon can Be better appre¬ 
ciated by tlie hunter or fowler than by men 
engaged in other occupations. The pursuit 
of the elephant or wild boar will bring the 
sportsman into many situations of surpassing 
beauty, which can hardly be witnessed by 
persons under any other circumstances—unless 
perhaps soldiers during a campaign, in which 
hostilities might be directed against insurgent 
natives. To pass round the island in a 
steamer or pleasure yacht, entering the bays, 
creeks, and harbours, from which prospects 
would be afforded differing from the open 
sea-views, would also enable the lover of the 
picturesque to realise much of the beauty for 
which Ceylon is so celebrated. All, however, 
who visit it, and travel upon the public roads, 
will have opportunity sufficient for testing its 
claims to be the Elysium of the East. The 
roads are far superior to any in continental 
India. This arises from the system of forced 
labour adopted by the rulers of the island 
from very remote times. The native kings 
accomplished all their great public works, 
as long as history can conduct us back, by 
the labour of men constrained to work with¬ 
out requital. The British continued to enforce 
labour, but recompensed it: without adopting 
some compidsory method, labour could not be 
procured, so little industry is there in the 
natives. In continental India the governors 
of the presidencies have no such resources, 
hence the superiority of the great roads of 
Ceylon. If the traveller in quest of sublime 
and beautiful scenery passes along these 
roads, he will have his desire abundantly 
gratified, for they generally conduct through 
some of the finest country in the world. 

Point de Galle is usually the first place 
with which acquaintance is formed on arrival 
from Europe, and the great line or lines of 
road lead from that place to Colombo, thence 
to Kandy, and thence to Trincomalee. From 
each of these towns good roads branch in 
various directions. 

The road from Point de Galle to Colombo 
lies along shore, proceeding north on the 
south-west coast, A thin wood of cocoa-nut 
trees lies between the road and the sea. The 
distance is about seventy miles. The line of 
country is populous, both sides of the road 
being studded with native huts, the appear¬ 
ance of which an English traveller compared 
to those which usually adorn the illustrated 
editions of Paul and Virginia. The cocoa- 
nut groves are so continuous, as to give an 
unpleasant impression of sameness; but the 
perpetual views of the sea are delightful and 
refreshing, sea and sky shining in the purest 
azure. Near to Colombo the cocoa-nut groves 
pleasingly alternate with the cinnamon gardens 


of the government. This shrub, which is so 
profitable to commerce, grows to the height 
of between four and five feet, and resembles the 
dwarf lilac both in the hue and form of the leaf. 
The vicinity of Colombo is not so picturesque 
as that of Point de Galle ; and although there 
are many pleasant inland prospects along the 
road, it is much less agreeable than almost 
any other on the island, or at all events would 
be considered so but for its fine sea-views. 

From Colombo to Kandy the route lies 
through magnificent landscapes. The length 
of the road is over seventy miles. A few 
miles from the first-named town there is a 
fine bridge of boats, over which the traveller 
passes, which pays an enormous toll yearly. 
For a third part of the journey after leaving 
the coast the scenery is low, paddy fields and 
other cultivation affording their peculiar inte¬ 
rest. The appearance of the young rice is 
very agreeable, the plant being then of an 
exquisitely bright yet delicate green. At 
the distance of about eighteen miles the 
country changes in its aspect, the groves of 
cocoa-nut gradually disappear, and plantations 
of areka and suriya-trees are observed—the 
latter tall and stately as an English elm, dis¬ 
playing their beautiful yellow blossoms above 
rich foliage, like English fields covered with 
the crowfoot. The road ascends all the way 
after the first stage to Kandy, and as the 
lower grounds are left behind, the scenery 
becomes commanding in the extreme. Tra¬ 
vellers are particularly struck by the pleasing 
contrast presented between the bold promi¬ 
nent masses of black gneiss rock and the 
delicate, fragile, and gently-tinted flowering 
creepers that climb around them. 

One of the finest scenes on this road is 
obtained from “the rest,” or half-way house. 
The building is situated in a lovely and 
extensive vale, begirt with a magnificent 
amphitheatre of hills, richly wooded; trees 
of many kinds clothe their sides and crown 
their summits ; the variety of colour presented 
by blossom and foliage, according to the sea¬ 
son, is wonderful and beautiful. The neigh¬ 
bourhood is, unfortunately, unhealthy, or no 
doubt independent settlers would take up 
their abode in a spot so surpassingly lovely. 
The next eighteen miles of the route is re¬ 
markable for the fair scenes of cultivation 
presented by the plantations of coffee, sugar, 
and indigo. About two miles from Attooma- 
kandy the mountain zone opens up before 
the traveller with a stupendous grandeur, 
which, except in the neighbourhood of the 
Himalayas, continental India does not exceed. 
The road so winds round the Kadagawana 
as to vary the prospects perpetually, new 
wonders and glories of scenery being pre- 




Chap. VIII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


1G9 


sented at every turn to the ravished eye. 
The road itself is a superior specimen of 
engineering skill. It required a long time 
to construct it, in consequence of the unwil¬ 
lingness of the natives to work, and the un¬ 
healthy character of the neighbourhood. 
Jungle fever carried off many of the officers 
and non-commissioned officers who super¬ 
intended the labourers. 

The ascent of the mountain probably opens 
up finer views than any which the alpine 
lands of Europe can yield : hold rocks, moun¬ 
tains coroneted with flowering trees, as if a 
succession of fairy bowers were constructed 
along their summits—the park-like declivities, 
interspersed with ravines, torrents, waterfalls, 
streaming currents, winding through the low¬ 
lands, and the undulated country stretching 
far into the distance, all bathed in a mellow 
and golden light, constitute scenery which 
human genius has never pencilled or described 
in colour or language befitting its claims. 

Writing of the road, and the scenery pre¬ 
sented from it, one who travelled it when the 
season most favoured his journey observes :— 
“ As the steep sides of the mountain are 
climbed, ravines and fissures are wound round, 
and often a perpendicular mountain rears its 
lofty crest on one side, and descends in the 
same manner on the opposite. Sometimes a 
brawling waterfall appears over the traveller’s 
head, as if threatening instant annihilation, by 
hurling him into the deep abyss below; then 
the road will become so narrow, that there ap¬ 
pears to be scarcely room sufficient for the ve¬ 
hicle to stand on, and the strongest nerves may 
be shaken, as the eye glances below at the steep 
precipice, down which some crumbling earth 
is rolling, loosened by the coach-wheels. To 
this circumscribed path, upon turning the 
next angle, succeeds a wide road and view of 
the surrounding country, terminated by the 
Blue Mountains in the distance, whose tower¬ 
ing heads blend with the azure heavens, 
Adam’s Peak rearing his lofty crest above 
his fellows. The combination of sublime and 
beautiful scenery brought under notice during 
the ascent of the Kadaganawa Pass is nearly 
incredible; roaring torrents, dashing down 
frightful abysses, from whose sides spring 
enormous trees, and at whose base are lands 
teeming with grain; terrific chasms, and 
overhanging masses of rock, where bright 
coloured flowering shrubs have taken root, 
rapidly succeed each other: and, when the 
summit of the mountain is attained, and the 
boundless extent and beauty of the prospect 
fully perceptible, many beholders of this mag¬ 
nificent scene cannot find utterance to express 
their sense of the might, majesty, and glory 
of the Almighty’s works, and the humiliating 

VOL. I. 


feeling of their own littleness. The freshness 
of the atmosphere, and the splendour of the 
scenery, are admitted by all, and extolled by 
numberless Europeans who have ascended the 
Kadaganawa Pass.” * 

The remaining portion of the road is re¬ 
markable for great variety of prospect, but 
more especially for its rich wood scenery. A 
description has been already given of the 
trees which flourish generally throughout the 
island, but in the neighbourhood of Kandy, 
which possesses several peculiarities of cli¬ 
mate, there is greater diversity, and some 
magnificent specimens unknown in the low¬ 
lands. The country around Kandy is like a 
vast garden—foliage, fruit, and flowers offering 
a variety beyond description; for it is as yet 
imperfectly explored by botanists or florists, 
although a few devotees of their beautiful 
sciences have expended labour, time, and 
fortune in the research. The attention of 
the stranger is more engaged by the taliput- 
palm than by any other of the lords of the 
Kandian forest : it flourishes in various 
directions close to the city and by the road. 
One road-side specimen has been much 
noticed by naturalists. This palm (Corypha 
umbraculifera, as named by some, or Licula 
spinosa, as others designate it) is a beautiful 
specimen of the high regions of Ceylon. The 
banyan, which flourishes everywhere in Cey¬ 
lon, is a glorious exemplification of the forest 
wonders of the highlands. The myrtle-tree 
( Myrtus ), and the bay -tree (Lauras), nr e nume - 
rous and beautiful. The tick-seed sunflower 
is a gorgeous flower of the woods, being 
covered in the season by golden-tinted blos¬ 
soms. It is curious that near the yellow rock 
common in this region there spring up luxu¬ 
riant balsams, bearing a delicate white and a 
brilliant red blossom, forming a combination 
of colour which the most exquisite designer 
in art could hardly conceive. In the midst 
of these wooded scenes animal life is curioua 
and picturesque. Monkeys peep and chatter 
from overhanging branches; parrots, and 
birds of more delicate form and feather, 
appear in flocks, or crowd the clustering 
foliage, appearing as if themselves bright 
blossoms blooming there. Large carpenter 
bees, and beetles with wings beautiful as an 
Iris, hover about the flowers which spring up 
or the blossoms which bow down their grace¬ 
ful petals by the wayside. The tree-frog 
may be seen creeping into the distended cup 
of the rich blossoms, or the spotted or striped 
lizard glistening on the trunk. At times a 
huge serpent will reveal his speckled skin as 
he glides from the shaded jungle into the 

* Ceylon. By Henry Charles Sirr, A.M., of Lincoln’s 
Inn, Barrister-at-law. 

Z 



170 


HISTORY OF THE 

warm ray. Sometimes tlie leopard may be 
seen stalking away into cover, or the elephant 
(more frequently tamed) lifting his huge pro¬ 
boscis as he proceeds on his heavy tramp. 

Within three miles of Kandy is Pendenia, 
with its celebrated bridge and botanical gar¬ 
dens. The former is built of satin wood; the 
waters of the Mehavelleganga, ennobled by 
flowing through the capital, pass beneath a 
magnificent arch, whose span is two hundred 
and seven feet. The botanical gardens owed 
much to the celebrated botanist Dr. Gardiner; 
and it is alleged that under his superintend¬ 
ence a specimen of every tree, shrub, and 
plant known to be indigenous to the island 
was under culture there. There are some 
very large tamarind-trees, but the finest of 
this species in the island is in the Moham¬ 
medan burial-ground at Putlarn, which is 
appropriately called the giant’s tree. The 
foreign plants and trees in the botanical gar¬ 
dens of Pendenia are numerous and beautiful. 

The route from Kandy to Trincomalee is 
much praised by European travellers and 
officers who are acquainted with it. About 
six miles on the road there is a singular suspen¬ 
sion bridge formed of cane, thrown across the 
Dederoo-oya. This was made by the natives, 
and is ingeniously constructed; but its frail 
appearance, and the dashing impetuosity of 
the stream which bounds beneath, try the 
nerves of Europeans when they first attempt 
the passage. The following description of 
this bridge is given by the writer last quoted: 

“ This structure is composed of cable-rattan, 
which frequently grows to the length of two 
hundred yards; and varies but little in thick¬ 
ness from one end to the other; is extremely 
light, flexible, and tough. The bridge is 
commenced by entwining canes a few feet 
apart round the trunks of'two large trees, 
that grow on the opposite banks of the 
stream, and whose branches bend over the 
river; when the required number of canes 
are securely fastened in this manner, portions 
of the same material are laid across to form 
the path, which is the same breadth as the 
circumference of the stems of the trees. Rat¬ 
tans are then placed at a sufficient height to 
form hand-rails, these being attached to the 
bridge by thin bamboos, or sticks, which 
alike support and retain the rails in their 
proper place. From the overhanging boughs 
are suspended cane or coir ropes, which are 
attached to the bridge, thus strengthening the 
structure, and lessening the vibration. The 
means of ascent are by a ladder composed of 
the same materials, which rests against the 
trunks of the opposite trees; and it is per¬ 
fectly astonishing to see the fearlessness with 
which women, children, or men carrying 


BRITISH EMPIRE [Ciiap. VIII. 

heavy burdens, will cross one of these aerial 
structures.” 

About half way is Dambool, the neigh¬ 
bourhood of which is remarkable for ruined 
tanks, choked up with brushwood and rank 
vegetation, which at certain seasons send 
forth the noxious influences usually emitted 
from decomposing vegetable matter. In this 
vicinity, also, are the far-famed rock-temples 
of Buddha, similar in their character to those 
in continental India. The late deputy 
queen’s advocate for the southern circuit of 
Ceylon says of these rock-temples, that they 
are “ complete specimens of the ingenuity, 
skill, and perseverance of man, and may 
almost be classed among the wonders of the 
world.” The late editor of the Ceylon Exa¬ 
miner uses language equally strong of the 
rock-temples of India, continental and in¬ 
sular :—“ The prodigious extent of most of 
these rock-cut temples astonishes the spec¬ 
tator not less than the elaborate finish of their 
complicated details delights him. The inge¬ 
nuity and skill, equally with the labour of the 
architects, must have been called into active 
demonstration in the excavation of these 
extraordinary places.” Other writers have 
laboured to depreciate them. Dr. Bryant 
insists that they were chiefly formed by 
nature; and, with extraordinary indifference 
to the force of evidence, also alleges that 
the pyramids of Egypt owe their existence 
chiefly to nature! 

Knox says that the Cingalese had a passion 
for such structures, “ as if they had been born 
solely to hew rocks and great stones, and lay 
them up in heaps;” and he denounces the 
folly of inferring from these excavations the 
civilization of the people. However judged, 
the cave-temples of Dambool are extremely 
interesting to the traveller, although they may 
not afford the evidence of early and superior 
civilization ascribed by some to the people 
who formed them; and there can be no doubt 
that what the great Oxford professor of San¬ 
scrit says of the early Hindoos, is true of the 
early Cingalese, that they possessed but three 
arts—architecture, weaving, and jewellery. 

From Dambool to Trincomalee the way 
lies through forests, where the scenery is rich 
and beautiful, the foliage appearing at the 
same time in every stage of progress; the 
fresh green tint of the young leaf, the dark 
green of the more matured, the mellow tinge 
such as is given by an English autumn, the 
bright bronze when the leaf has passed its 
prime, and the deep rich orange of its decay, 
are all present together, affording a beauty of 
sylvan scenery unknown to the occidental 
world. In these forests the ruins of ancient 
works are numerous, and on a scale to prove 





Chap. VIII.] 


IX INDIA AND THE EAST. 


171 


that the buildings they represent were mag¬ 
nificent temples and tanks, mingled with the 
vestiges of villages once extensive and popu¬ 
lous. Captain Aitcheson, who superintended 
the construction of the road, gives this ac¬ 
count of these remains:—“ The ruins of 
wihares (temples), remains of deserted vil¬ 
lages, tanks, and other remnants of antiquity, 
prove that the vast wilderness of beautiful 
and valuable forest trees through which the 
new line of road passes, heretofore supposed 
a trackless desert, obnoxious to the existence 
of man, and destitute of water and inhabit¬ 
ants, once contained a considerable popula¬ 
tion, by whose labours an extensive tract of 
irrigated land was regularly cultivated.” 

Within seven miles of Trincomalee there is 
a range of wooded hills, from which spring 
the hot wells of Kanya. There are seven of 
these, of unequal temperature, ranging from 
100° to 112°. Each well has a low embank¬ 
ment, and the whole are encircled by a wall 
of kabook. The waters are used for laving 
the person, and are supposed to possess 
restorative powers in various diseases, such 
as cutaneous irruptions and rheumatic pains. 
English medical men have admitted their 
value in these complaints. It is remarkable, 
that notwithstanding the fine climate, rheu¬ 
matic affections are not uncommon either in 
insular or continental India. Rheumatism is 
incurred chiefly during the rage of the mon¬ 
soon. The Ceylonese regard these wells as 
holy, and under the protection of the Hindoo 
god of wisdom, Ganeesa. A temple is erected 
to this deity, containing a colossal stone- 
statue to represent him. Approaching Trin¬ 
comalee, the scenery assumes a still nobler 
appearance as the ocean is descried; the 
varied coast-line, bold shores, blue sea, pal¬ 
myra groves, and uplands covered with varie¬ 
gated forests, present rare combinations of 
the beautiful. 

The roads described in the foregoing pages 
are those over which persons travelling on 
pleasure, business, or duty generally proceed; 
but there are several others which afford 
scenes worthy of being sought. One of these 
is the route to Newera Ellia, the sanitorium: 
it branches off from the Pendenia Bridge 
already described, and runs through a moun¬ 
tainous region, celebrated in Cingalese and 
Hindoo history as the theatre of exploit con¬ 
nected with Rama, Rawana, and the beautiful 
Seeta. The road winds round deep pre¬ 
cipices, to which the English soldiery have 
given the names of “the Devil’s Punehbovds.” 
The character of the scenery is much like 
that already noticed as belonging to the road 
approaching Kandy from Colombo and from 
Trincomalee. About twelve miles en route 


there is a rest-house at a place called Gam- 
pala, where invalids and travellers often 
remain some time to enjoy the extraordinary 
prospects presented to the beholder at that 
place. It is also common to tarry there, in 
order to witness a mountain conflagration 
which, during the hot season, often occurs. 
The ambulance which overhangs Gampala i 3 
the most frequent theatre of such a display. 
The mountain is covered with large patches 
of lemon-grass, which is liable to spontaneous 
ignition. As the grass is often eight feet 
high, dry, and inflammable, when it takes fire 
the flames burst forth with fury, and rapidly 
pour their burning tide along the mountain 
slopes, even against the wind, as the breeze 
causes the long blades to bend towards the 
flames. Generally the fire rolls on irresistibly 
until some deep ravine checks its career; and 
sometimes it leaps the gulf, or sparks borne 
aloft fall on the prairies beyond, when the 
roaring cataract of flame rushes down the 
mountain sides, and rolls in surging, strug¬ 
gling waves upwards to the summit. This 
process seems to benefit the vegetation, for in 
a single week after the hill sides are charred 
and blackened, the young blades sprout up, 
and the grassy slopes appear reinvigorated. 

In 1829 Sir Edward Barnes, then governor 
of Ceylon, established the sanitorium in these 
mountains, in what the natives call “ the City 
of the Plain”—probably because it is in the 
neighbourhood of still greater elevations. 
When the traveller, in approaching this beau- 
tiful retreat, leaves Gampala, his attention is 
arrested by the cataracts of Rambodde, and 
the valley of Kattamale. The former rushes 
with noisy vehemence from a great altitude, 
pouring a large body of foaming water from 
rock to rock; the latter is remarkable for a 
quiet and salutary stream, which flows peace¬ 
fully through its verdant circle, and which 
is celebrated for its curative efficacy; it is 
unfortunately the occasion of many puerile 
superstitions. From Rambodde a glimpse is 
caught of Newera Ellia. The remainder of 
the journey is only remarkable for the rapid 
alteration in the character 'of the foliage, and 
plants, and flowers. The trees and shrubs of 
the tropics disappear as if by magic, and 
those of temperate regions, familiar to Euro¬ 
pean eyes, are at first mingled with inter¬ 
mediate species; and then predominate. The 
rhododendron, the white guelder, white and 
blush rose, peach, apple, pear, plum, cherry, 
and other European trees and shrubs abound; 
the violet, sweet pea, cowslip, primrose, and 
daisy also cover the slopes. When in the vici¬ 
nity of Newera Ellia, gardens are formed: all 
European vegetables are produced in luxu¬ 
riance. “The plain” is situated six thou- 



172 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VIII. 


sand three hundred feet above the level of I 
the sea; the atmosphere is bracing, and in 
the mornings and evenings cold enough for 
domestic fires. The houses of the settlement 
have consequently chimneys, reminding the 
new comer pleasurably of home. At all 
hours the occupants of the sanitorium may 
roam about, and fowl or hunt, or enjoy 
equestrian or pedestrian exercise; so that a 
marvellous efficacy is exercised by the situa¬ 
tion in restoring invalids to health. Ice, half 
an inch in thickness, is sometimes found in 
the morning, and the thermometer frequently 
falls below 28°: it is seldom higher than 65°. 
The scenery from the immediate site of the 
settlement is exquisitely lovely, and to the 
European eye perhaps not less so, because of 
the familiar objects which cover the face of 
nature—the wild fields blooming with home 
flowers, and the hills graced with English 
foliage. The mountains rise on every side to 
a vast dieight; the highest peak in view is 
two thousand feet above the sanitorium. 
Cascades are numerous, and add much to the 
beauty of the bold landscape; while the pure 
water rushing into the plain occupied by the 
settlement, affords a wholesome supply for 
man and beast. 

Although reserving descriptions of the 
towns of the island until its general features 
are depicted, it is appropriate here to notice 
the sanitorium, as it can hardly be called a 
town, and possesses no distinctive native 
peculiarities. The governor, commander-in- 
chief of the forces, bishop, colonial secretary, 
and other government functionaries, have 
pleasant residences, and gardens containing 
the choicest English fruits and flowers, with 
such of the productions of the East as will 
grow at that elevation. A church and schools 
have been built near the governor’s house. 
A canteen, hospital, and excellent barracks for 
troops have been erected, and European sol¬ 
diers exhausted by the climate of the low¬ 
lands, speedily recover their strength, and 
even complexion. Immigration of English 
farmers and farm-labourers has been contem¬ 
plated, and in some degree has already been 
tried. Certainly no more beautiful and health¬ 
ful situation could be chosen, and with eveiy 
prospect of prosperity, so far as site, soil, and 
climate may conduce to success. As emigra¬ 
tion is so important a question in this coun¬ 
try, it may afford satisfaction to the reader to 
have competent opinion as to the desirableness 
of preferring this region to Australia, the 
Cape, or America. Mr. Baker, an enterprising 
traveller, says that the natives produce five 
crops of potatoes annually from the same land, 
so prolific is the soil. The following is a 
summary of his statements as to the prospects 


of an English farmer settled there:—Cows 
and buffaloes may be purchased from 25s. 
to 40s. per head; sheep from 3s. to 7s.; 
pigs from 3s. to 7s. ; fowls from 7s. per 
dozen; ducks from 12*. ditto. Mr.Baker pro¬ 
ceeds to show that, notwithstanding the very 
low price of stock, fine meat is unknown in 
Ceylon, the beasts being unfattened, and 
slaughtered without discretion. Although in 
many parts of the island the calf is per¬ 
mitted to take the whole supply from the 
mother, yet not a cheese has ever been 
manufactured in Ceylon, and butter sells 
for 2s. (id. per pound. Notwithstanding 
the abundance and cheapness of pigs, hams 
and bacon have never been cured; and yet 
all these articles are consumed in large quan¬ 
tities, and imported from England at an 
enormous price—cheese, hams, and bacon 
being generally sold at two shillings per 
pound. All these articles may be prepared 
at Newera Ellia, with the same facility, and 
at one-fourth of the cost, of those produced in 
England; and would therefore sell at a large 
profit both for home consumption and for 
exportation. The island is chiefly supplied 
by Bombay with potatoes, but those of a 
superior quality now produced at Newera 
Ellia sell at twenty-eight shillings per cwt. 
In three months from the planting of the 
sets they are fit to dig, and one set has fre¬ 
quently been known to yield fifty potatoes. 
Wheat has been experimented upon, and the 
quality produced proved infinitely superior to 
the seed imported; and yet Ceylon is entirely 
dependant upon America for the supply of 
flour. Oats and beans thrive well, but have 
been neglected; consequently the horses in 
the island are fed expensively upon paddy 
and gram, the principal portion of which is 
imported from India: thus a most extensive 
market is open to supply the home market, as 
well as that of the Mauritius. Mr. Baker 
offers to the enterprising farmer of small 
capital, a comfortable and most profitable 
farm, free from those heavy taxes which bur¬ 
den his industry at home, where he may not 
only amass a considerable fortune, but may 
live a happy, luxurious life, with the advan¬ 
tages of residing in a comparatively civilised 
society, with a school for the education of his 
children, and the house of God within his 
reach. 

The grand difficulty in the way of success 
with the farmer and planter anywhere in 
Ceylon is want of labour. The Cingalese 
will not work if they can procure as much 
food as will enable them and their families to 
subsist. This is easily procured, and is an 
almost insuperable impediment to obtaining 
continuous labour. Mr. Sullivan, describing 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


173 


Chap. VIII.] 

the road en route from Point de Galle to 
Colombo along the coast, says that he saw the 
men lying in the sun chewing betel root, the 
women performing the little work of which 
there was any sign, children and dogs pursu¬ 
ing the coach or diligence, alike unheeded by 
the lazy beings who claimed a property in 
them. Coolies arrive periodically from the 
Malabar coast, as Irish reapers attend the 
harvest fields of England; but as these 
visitors are satisfied if they can procure as 
much money as will lay in a stock of rice 
until the next season, which is easily accom¬ 
plished, they, on acquiring that amount, or 
something near what they presume will en¬ 
able them to maintain themselves and fami¬ 
lies at home in their own way, will desert 
their work, violate their engagements without 
scruple, make their way to the sea-coast with 
surprising rapidity, and swarm like slaves in 
the middle passage on board any ship which 
will convey them to the continent. Many 
planters have been ruined in this way, and 
fine estates have gone out of cultivation. At 
Newera Elba the same consequences would 
ensue from the same causes, unless set¬ 
tlers could bring with them a supply of 
labourers. 

A few miles from the sanitorium there are 
also fine plateaux, which are called “ the 
Horton Plains,” constituting the highest table¬ 
land in the island. This vicinity is noted for 
‘•'the pitcher plant” (Nepenthes distillatoria). 
The name is derived from the blossom, which 
is pitcher-shaped, and nearly a foot in length. 
This is not the only plant peculiar to the 
region which is an object of interest. The 
nelee, or honey-plant, emits from its flowers 
an odour resembling that of honey, in which 
the natives take great delight: it flowers but 
once in eight years, and as the blossoms 
decay, bees swarm in multitudes around it, 
the odour being at that season strongest, 
which seems to attract them. This plant is 
further remarkable as being generally at¬ 
tended by a beautiful although leafless para¬ 
site, which bears a bell-shaped flower, ex¬ 
quisite in tint, having an amber heart, 
the edges scarlet: these flowers, blending 
with “ the pitcher blossoms,” afford an ap¬ 
pearance of most strange but captivating 
beauty. 

No race are prouder of their lineage than the 
Cingalese. According to them, thousands of 
years before our era the island was peopled 
by a civilised community, endowed with 
superior intellectual powers, and famous in 
arms. From these worthy occupants of their 
fair realm the present Cingalese declare that 
they are descended. They represent their 
island as inhabited from the remotest antiquity, 


Adam’s Peak, the top of the highest moun¬ 
tain, having been the primeval abode of the 
human family— 

“ Ere man had fall’n, or sin had drawn 
’Twixt man and heaven her curtain yet.” 

They even profess to trace the footprints of 
the first man on his departure from the para¬ 
dise of the peak, to the shores of the island 
from which he was expelled. 

Ancient historians do not assign to the 
aborigines of Ceylon a date as old as the 
creation, nor a descent direct from the first 
family. “ The Chinese, from a remote period, 
were the masters of oriental commerce; and 
some of their vessels were driven upon the 
coast of Ceylon, near the district which they 
subsequently termed Chilau. The mariners 
and passengers saved themselves upon the 
rocks; and, finding the island fertile, soon 
established themselves upon it. Shortly after¬ 
wards, the Malabars, having discovered it, 
sent hither their exiles, whom they deno¬ 
minated Galas. The exiles were not long in 
mixing with the Chinese; and from the two 
names was formed Chingalees, and afterwards 
Chingalais.” * 

Some of the ancient Hindoo historians 
represent the island as originally the locality 
of demons and other evil beings, of an extra- 
human origin. Such a tradition rather tends 
to establish the antiquity of its population. 
Others state that one Singha, a prince of the 
neighbouring coasts of the continent, con¬ 
quered the island, and his people, mingling 
with a wild aboriginal race, were designated 
Cingalese, and are the progenitors of the 
present population of Ceylon. 

The people bear no resemblance to the 
Chinese in complexion, countenance, or cha¬ 
racter; but they do exhibit a very strong 
resemblance to the inhabitants of the neigh¬ 
bouring shores of continental India. There 
is a race inhabiting the interior called Yed- 
dahs; these are literally wild men, living in 
caves and forest-huts; they are predatory and 
migratory, subsisting chiefly on game, which 
they kill with bows and arrows; refusing- 
all intercourse with the other natives, their 
language is unintelligible to the other people 
of the island. These are with reason sup¬ 
posed to be the oldest race in Ceylon. 

Marco Polo visited the island in 1244, and 
from his account the tradition of a remote 
antiquity, and of the island having I een the 
home of our first parents, existed then as it 
does now. His words are:—“ Both men and 
women go nearly in a state of nudity, only 
wrapping a cloth round their loins, ffhey 
have no grain besides rice and sesame, of 

* Ribeiro’s Historia de Ilgha de Zeilau. 



174 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VIII 


which latter they make oil. Their food is 
milk, rice, and flesh, and they drink wine 
drawn from trees. The island produces more 
valuable and beautiful rubies than those found 
in any other part of the world; and likewise 
sapphires, topazes, amethysts, garnets, and 
many other precious and costly stones. In 
this highland there is a very high mountain, 
so rocky and precipitous, that the ascent to 
the top is impracticable, as it is said, except 
by the assistance of iron chains employed 
for that purpose; by means of these some 
persons attain the summit, where the tomb 
of Adam, our first parent, is reported to be 
found.” 

Subsequent writers and travellers affirm, 
that the Malabars and Moormen of the oppo¬ 
site shores made frequent incursions, and 
fixed settlements, mingling with the inhabit¬ 
ants. The result was that the latter classes 
influenced in a great degree the character of 
the population of the Kandian districts of the 
island, who have a peculiar character. The 
Cingalese in the lower regions seem to be 
a mixture of races from China and India. 
Since the Portuguese and Dutch conquests, 
the population has become still more mixed, 
both of these nations having mingled more 
freely with the people than the English, and 
left their traces in the population to some 
extent. The population of the lowlands is 
more diverse than that of the hills, the Kan- 
dians having retained their independence 
long after the people along the shore were 
subjugated, and their race influenced by suc¬ 
cessive conquerors. 

The Kandians were thus described by 
Knox, who spent many years in captivity in 
the hill capital:—“ In understanding, quick 
and apprehensive; in design, subtle and 
crafty; in discourse, courteous, but full of 
flatteries; naturally inclined to temperance, 
both in meat and drink, but not chastity; 
near and provident in their families—com¬ 
mending good husbandry; in their disposi¬ 
tions, not passionate — neither hard to be 
reconciled when angry; in their promises 
very unfaithful—approving lying in them¬ 
selves, but disliking it in others; delighting 
in sloth—deferring labour till urgent neces¬ 
sity compel them; neat in apparel; nice in 
eating, and not much given to sleep.” * 

On the whole, the following comparative 
estimate of the races, and judgment upon 
their probable origin, as given by the late 
queen’s advocate, bears the impress of accu¬ 
racy:—“Although it is affirmed by writers 
that the Kandians and Cingalese are both 
descended from the same parent stock, we 
disagree with them materially, as the Ivan- 
* Knoi’s History of Ceylon. 


dians have ait the distinctive marks of a 
nobler race and purer blood—being, in our 
opinion, the offspring of Malabars, who had 
intermarried with the Veddahs, or aborigines 
of Ceylon, whose blood has remained pure, 
owing to non-admixture with foreign con¬ 
querors ; as Kandy remained a free, warlike, 
and independent state long after the lowlands 
had experienced the yoke of numerous con¬ 
querors, of various nations: whilst the Cin¬ 
galese are the descendants of the followers of 
the Indian king, Wijeya, who conquered 
Ceylon long anterior to the Christian era. 
But the latter race has deteriorated, both 
physically and mentally, by constant admix¬ 
ture with the various tribes and nations who 
have conquered, colonized, or visited the low¬ 
lands and maritime districts.” 

The average height of the Cingalese is not 
more than five feet six inches, but they are 
well formed. The Kandians are rather more 
muscular, and, although living in an elevated 
region, their complexion is darker. The 
women of both races are often attractive in 
appearance, but their habit of chewing betel 
gives to the mouth a filthy colour: they chew 
much more than the men. The modus ope¬ 
rands is to select a betel leaf, then to take a 
small piece of areka-nut, and another of chu- 
nam, or prepared lime, and roll them in the leaf, 
forming a small ball the size of a boy’s mar¬ 
ble; this is placed in the mouth, and the 
flavour is much enjoyed. Much saliva is 
secreted, and tinged by the betel as red as 
blood, staining the teeth and lips most for¬ 
biddingly. This practice, and the exhausting- 
energy of the climate, deprive the ladies of 
all personal comeliness by the time they are 
thirty years of age. The Cingalese idea of 
beauty may be gleaned from the following 
extract from a native work:— 

“A woman’s tresses should be abundant,, 
as voluminous as the tail of a peacock, and 
as long as a palm leaf of ten moon’s growth; 
her eyebrows should be arched like the rain¬ 
bow; her eyes long as the almond, and the 
colour dark as midnight when there is no 
moon. Her nose should be slender as the 
bill of the hawk; her lips full, and the colour 
of red coral; her teeth small, even, closely 
placed together, and the colour of the pearl 
when it is newly taken from the oyster, and 
cleansed. Her throat should be thick and 
round, like the stem of a plantain tree in full 
growth. Her chest should be wide; her 
bosom full, and the form of a young cocoa- 
nut; and her waist small, round, and taper— 
so slender, that it could be clasped within 
the two outstretched hands. Her hips should 
be large and round, her limbs slender, and 
the soles of her feet without any arch or 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST 


175 


Cuap. vm.] 

hollow; and the surface of her person should 
he soft, delicate, smooth, and round, neither 
hones, sinews, or angles being visible. Not a 
blemish should be found on her skin, the tint 
of which should be bright and brown.” 

The half-castes, or, as they are commonly 
called, burghers, dress like Europeans, more 
particularly the men. They are generally 
of European descent, especially from Dutch 
or Portuguese, by Cingalese women. They 
are, like the Indo-Portuguese, darker in com¬ 
plexion than any of the native races, and 
singukuly unprepossessing in countenance. 
They are less intellectual than either Kan- 
dians, Cingalese, Moormen, or Malabars, and 
are utterly grovelling and sensual. Their 
attire gives the men of this class a less effemi¬ 
nate appearance than the Cingalese proper, 
but in manner and spirit they are more so. 
The effeminacy of the Cingalese men is ren¬ 
dered much more striking than it otherwise 
would be by their extraordinary costume. 
They are clad in petticoats, carry parasols, 
and turn up their long black hair as women 
do in England, fastening it on the crown of 
the head by a very high comb. The petti¬ 
coats constrain their gait, and still more con¬ 
duce to a mistake of their sex. The women 
are frequently more masculine in features, 
wear shorter jackets, seldom carry parasols, 
and do not turn up the hair under tall 
combs. It is a curious sight to see the men 
sitting in groups, combing their long hair, 
and anointing it with oil. 

The religious condition of the inhabitants 
of Ceylon is such as might be expected from 
the influence of the Buddhist doctrines, which 
they profess, the genius and character of 
which have been already shown in a previous 
chapter devoted to the religions of India. 
Buddhism, however, has its sects, and in 
every country where it is professed it assumes 
diversities, theoretical and practical. In 
Ceylon the professors of this creed, more 
particularly than elsewhere, look forward to 
a further manifestation of their spiritual chief, 
“ the Maitree Buddha.” They aver that the 
siufface of the earth had been destroyed by 
fire at a remote period, and was since revivi¬ 
fied by water. This doctrine seems more or 
less to pervade the philosophical theologies of 
most oriental nations, and is doubtless a tra¬ 
ditional influence of the Deluge. “ The bene¬ 
ficial effects of water in the history of this 
world, and in the history of their gods, seems 
to be a very genei'al impression in the East, 
and the 1 Spirit of Gocl moving upon the face 
of the waters ’ is fully realised in all heathen 
mythologies. From the earliest days there 
appears to have been some very general 
system of worship of aquatic plants. The 


most ancient coins represent the tamara as 
sacred. The Japanese believe that Bromna, 
the eldest son of their chief god, was created 
on the tamara. The Egyptians represent 
Iris on the lotus. Krishna, the god of love 
amongst the Hindoos, is represented as float¬ 
ing down the Ganges on one of the nymphcea, 
occupied in the infantine amusement of slick¬ 
ing his toe ! ” 

The reverence of the Ceylonese for Buddha 
is carried to a great excess; and nowhere are 
the disciples of that creed so bigoted as in 
Ceylon—not even in Birmah—and in no part 
are they so bigoted as in Kandy. That city 
is the Mecca of Buddhism. There are the 
chief temple, the great idol, and the most 
holy relics. Among the latter is the alleged 
tooth of Buddha himself, for which the 
priesthood of Siam offered an enormous sum 
without success. It is not, however, the real 
tooth of the great sectary, for Constantine de 
Berganza destroyed that, or what was then 
supposed to be such, in the year 1560. Six 
hundred of the followers of Francis Xavier 
having been put to death by the Buddhists, 
Berganza laid waste cities and temples, and 
took the most especial precautions to secure 
possession of the tooth. This, however, is 
denied by the Cingalese and Kandians, as 
the following account of the capture of “ the 
Dalada relic” (as it is called) by the English, 
during the Kandian rebellion of 1818, will 
show. Dr. Davy thus writes :—“ Through 
the kindness of the governor, I had an 
opportunity of seeing this celebrated relic, 
when it was recovered, towards the conclu¬ 
sion of the rebellion, aud brought back to be 
replaced in the Dalada Malegawa, or temple, 
from whence it had been clandestinely taken. 
.... Here it may be remarked, that when 
the relic was taken, the effect of it3 capture 
was astonishing, and almost beyond the com¬ 
prehension of the enlightened, for now, they 
said, the English are indeed masters of the 
country, for they who possess the relic have 
a right to govern four kingdoms ; this, for two 
thousand years, is the first time the relic was 
ever taken from us. The Portuguese declare 
that in the sixteenth century they obtained 
possession of the relic, which the Cingalese 
deny, saving, that when Cotta was taken, the 
relic was secretly removed to Saffragam. 
They also affirm that when Kandy was con¬ 
quered by us, in 1815, the relic was never 
surrendered by them to us, and they con¬ 
sidered it to be in their possession until we 
took it from them by force of arms. The first 
adikar also observed, that whatever the Eng¬ 
lish might think of having taken Pilimi 
Talawe, and other rebel leaders, in his opi¬ 
nion, and in the opinion of the people in 




176 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap VIII. 


general, tlie taking of the relic was of infi¬ 
nitely more moment.” 

From 1818 until 1847 tkis true or false 
relic was preserved by the English govern¬ 
ment, and exhibited to the priests and fol¬ 
lowers of Buddha for the purpose of being 
worshipped! On the 28th of May, 1828, 
“the Dalada” was publicly exhibited by the 
government, who caused the ceremony to be 
attended with great splendour. On the 27th 
of March, 1846, some Siamese priests arrived 
to see the relic, and there was another public 
display. In 1847 the home government sent 
orders to restore the tooth to the custody of 
the priests—a most impolitic act, as all the 
acts of our government have been, which 
were time-serving, and quasi-conciliatory to 
either Buddhist or Brahmin priests. Had 
the tooth been carried away, and deposited 
in the British Museum as a curiosity, or had 
it been destroyed, the superstition of the 
people would have received a great check: 
in the one case they would have supposed 
that the power its possession conferred would 
have remained with the English; in the 
other, that Ceylon was no longer under the 
especial obligation of worshipping Buddha, 
which it now feels. In either case the invi¬ 
dious nationality by which the Cingalese, 
especially the Kandian section of them, is 
characterised would have been depressed, 
and motives of disloyalty, which were che¬ 
rished, and led to conspiracy and insurrection, 
in 1848, would have been removed. In that 
year, on the 14th of August, the governor, 
Lord Torrington, sent the following despatch 
to the home government:—“ As the posses¬ 
sion of the Buddhist relic, or tooth, has 
always been regarded by the Kandians as a 
mark of sovereignty over their country, and 
it was stolen and carried about in 1818, being 
used as a signal for rebellion, which only ter¬ 
minated with the recovery of it, it was judged 
right, by the commandant, to demand the 
keys of the temple, as well as of the shrine 
of the relic, which had been delivered by me 
into the charge of two priests and a chief, 
about a year ago. He then assured himself 
that this object of veneration had not been 
removed from its accustomed position, and 
converted into a signal of rebellion. * But not 
trusting any longer to the integrity of the 
priests or chiefs, by whom the insurrection 
lias been organised, the keys have, for the 
present at all events, been retained in the 
possession of the commandant.” 

Great as is the folly of the Cingalese in 
respect to this holy tooth, the folly of the 
English government infinitely surpassed it. 
There was mistaken piety in the one case—an 
impious indifference to the claims of con¬ 


science and religious duty in the other. It is 
time that the English nation should under¬ 
stand that the class of men from whom colonial 
governors and great officers are selected care 
nothing what blasphemy or idolatry they sup¬ 
port, if motives of policy or revenue are pro¬ 
moted. They will endow cathedrals, mosques, 
temples; publicly exhibit holy teeth or hairs 
for one idolatry to-day, and clothe in costly 
trappings the idol of some rival idolatry to¬ 
morrow : like the present commissioners of 
the Punjaub, commending mosques and hea¬ 
then temples as works of public utility, de¬ 
serving support from the government, in one 
public document, and wooing the influence of 
Christian missionaries in another. The ques¬ 
tion with the majority of governors has been, 
not what was right in the abstract, nor what 
was proper in respect to the rights and liber¬ 
ties of the people over whom they ruled, but 
how far the support of superstitions might 
facilitate the collection of revenue, or the 
temporary administration of government. The 
blame of such things has often been thrown 
exclusively on the East India Company, but 
it has rested in a greater measure upon the 
titled servants of the crown. Our cabinets 
have generally been composed of men to 
whom such proceedings have been acceptable. 
The plea has been frequently set up for them 
that religious toleration was their motive, the 
spirit of Englishmen being abhorrent to per¬ 
secution ; but so far from this excuse having 
foundation in fact, the men who thus shame¬ 
lessly betrayed the Christian religion in fa¬ 
vour of idolatry, were often noted perse¬ 
cutors of their fellow Christians at home and 
abroad, unless such had power through their 
representatives in the House of Commons to 
make their voice heard in the cabinet. All 
remonstrances and petitions in reference to 
such matters coming from Christian churches 
in England, however numerous, were treated 
with disdain, except action was taken in refer¬ 
ence to the parliamentary elections. As soon as 
the question of the public patronage of idolatry, 
Suttee, or any other atrocity found convenient 
by our public officers abroad, was made a 
matter of comment on the hustings, hurried 
orders were sent out to feign compliance 
with those popular demands; and, in propor¬ 
tion as constituencies were seen to be in 
earnest, cabinets became active, and the 
consciences of the representatives of British 
power abroad became enlightened in a manner 
edifying to behold. The religious feelings 
and principles of the masses of English citi¬ 
zens are obviously not participated by large 
sections of the higher classes, who, while 
punctual church-goers, and ostensible friends 
of the clergy and our home religious institu- 



Chai\ VI1L1 


IX INDIA AND THE EAST. 


177 


tions (at least, sucli as are not unfashionable), 
are notoriously the zealous patrons of all 
exotic creeds that may happen to have 
numerous devotees, and the jealous enemies 
of Christian missionaries, of whatever evan¬ 
gelical church. Happily, there are many 
bearing high honours in the state who feel 
it incumbent upon them to recognise the reli¬ 
gious liberty of the rudest idolaters, but who 
will have no participation in their superstitious 
observances, and would not, even to serve any 
object, commit the greatest of all known 
sins-—partake of or patronise idolatry. 

The Dalada Malegawa, or depository and 
temple of the sacred tooth, is a building- 
erected in a style of architecture approaching 
to that of the Chinese. The building is of two 
stories, the sanction sanctorum being on the 
second. It has folding doors, with panels of 
brass; there are no windows, and the sun¬ 
light can never enter it by any means. The 
walls and ceilings are hung with gold brocade 
and white shawls, with coloured borders. A 
table, covered with gold brocade, bears two 
images of Buddha, one of gold and the other of 
crystal. The richest fruits, and the most sweet¬ 
smelling flowers, are presented as offerings 
to these idols. Four baskets, each twelve 
inches high, are also placed on the table; 
these contain sacred relics. In the centre is 
the karandua, or casket, which contains the 
holy tooth. The casket is five feet high, 
bell-shaped, and formed of silver, richly gilt. 
The chasing is simple, but most elegant; a 
few gems surround it, and on the apex is set 
a cat’s eye. Numerous costly offerings sur¬ 
round this bell-like covering of the relic. 
One of these is a bird, which is attached to a 
massive gold chain, elegantly chased. “ The 
body is formed of gold, and the plumage is 
represented by a profusion of precious gems, 
which consist of diamonds, emeralds, rubies, 
sapphires, and cats’ eyes. Description is in¬ 
adequate to convey a correct idea of the 
extreme and extraordinary effulgence and 
exquisite beauty of these elaborate decorations, 
which the limner’s art alone could faithfully 
delineate.” The relic is wrapped in an ex¬ 
tremely thin sheet of virgin gold, which is 
deposited in a gold box, just sufficiently 
capacious to receive the tooth, which Euro¬ 
peans declare to be as large as that of an 
alligator, and to have been manufactured 
from the tusk of an elephant. The golden 
box is studded with precious stones, which 
are exquisitely arranged. It is placed in a 
golden vase, decorated with diamonds, eme¬ 
ralds, and rubies, and wrapped in rich bro¬ 
cade. This is laid within a second vase, also 
of gold, which is enfolded by pure white 
muslin. This vase is placed in another 

VCL. i. 


similar to itself, and that in a fourth, more 
costly, for it is larger, and profusely, yet 
tastefully ornamented with chasing and gems. 
A gentleman long resident in Ceylon, and 
who, having official opportunities, was enabled 
to investigate this extraordinary sanctum, 
writes :— 

“ When we saw the relic it was placed in 
the centre of an exquisitely beautiful pink 
lotus, the flowers of the bo-tree being strewed 
around, and tastefully arranged on the shrine ; 
but it was most pitiable to behold the be¬ 
nighted Buddhists, many of them learned 
men and good scholars, prostrating themselves 
before a piece of discoloured bone. There is 
also a smaller and most exquisitely beautiful 
casket, or karandua , studded with precious 
stones, in which the relic is placed when it is 
borne in the religious processions, or when 
the chief priests, in troublous times of com¬ 
motion, or war, should think it necessary to 
insure the safety of the Dalada by removing 
it from the temple. 

“ Above the shrine, and attached to the 
wall, are plates of gold, on which are inscribed 
sacred emblems and characters: on either side 
of the principal shrine there are smaller 
shrines, which are covered with gold and 
silver cloths, on which are placed gilt lamps, 
and offerings of flowers and fruit; and the 
effluvia arising from the cocoa-nut oil, with 
which the lamps are supplied, combined with 
the perfume of the votive flowers, renders the 
atmosphere of this unventilated apartment 
most oppressive. 

“ A contiguous staircase leads to a similar 
apartment, which is decorated in the same 
manner as the one we have described, where 
is to be seen the recumbent figure of the 
god Gotama Buddha, the size of life; the 
features are well delineated, and the figure is 
gilt, with the exception of the face and 
hands. Near him are placed figures of other 
gods and the goddess Patine, the shrine 
being decorated with golden ornaments, many 
of which are studded with precious stones. 

“ The god Buddha is represented by the 
Cingalese in three attitudes—namely, stand¬ 
ing erect, with one hand raised, as if prepar¬ 
ing to step forward; seated on a cushion, with 
the legs crossed; and reclining on his side, 
his hand placed under his head, which rests 
upon a pillow. We had two figures of Go¬ 
tama Buddha presented to us: one, in the 
act of advancing, is of ivory, about five inches 
in height, the hair, eyes, lips, and palms of 
the hands being coloured, to represent life, 
whilst the drapery is relieved by stripes of 
vermillion; the other figure is of bronze, 
about three inches and a half in height, and 
represents the god seated cross-legged. The 

A A 



178 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VIII. 


ornament, or sacred emblem, which is placed 
on the crown of the head of eacli of these 
idols is used solely to designate Buddha, as 
the emblem of the other gods is of a totally 
different character. 

“ In the Malegawa a most valuable seated 
figure of Buddha was to be seen in 1847 
(and we pi-esume it is there now), which had 
been presented by the Siamese priests ; it is 
nearly eleven inches in height, and was carved 
out of a cat’s eye. Having had the good fortune 
to have been conducted over the Dalada Ma¬ 
legawa by a Kandian chief, we were shown 
all that was considered either curious or 
magnificent.” 

The sacred relics of Buddha, generally a 
hair, or some shred of apparel, are deposited 
in monumental buildings, which are always 
identical in construction — “a bell-shaped 
tomb surmounted by a spire.” These are 
called dcigobahs. Mr. Layard, father of the 
explorer of Nineveh, opened one of these at 
Colombo in 1820, of which he gives the fol¬ 
lowing description:-—“In the centre of the 
dagobah a small square compartment was 
discovered, lined with briclc, and paved with 
coral, containing a cylindrical mass of grey 
granite, rudely shaped into a vase, or Icaran- 
dua, which had a closely-fitting cover or cap 
of the same. This vase contained an ex¬ 
tremely small fragment of bone, pieces of 
thin gold—in which, in all probability, the 
bone had originally been wrapped—pieces of 
the blue sapphire, and ruby, three small 
pearls, a few gold rings, beads of cornelian 
and crystal, and pieces of glass, which resem¬ 
bled icicles in shape. In the compartment 
with the vase were also placed a brazen and 
ah earthen lamp, a small truncated pyramid 
made of cement, and clay images of the 
cobra and other sacred objects of Buddhist 
superstition.” 

The following exemplification of the super¬ 
stition of the Ceylonese is recorded by Mr. 
Sullivan :—“ The Cingalese faith in metem- 
pyschosis is entire and unhesitating, and 
their confidence in its truth admits of no 
doubt whatever. A man, when oppressed by 
his superiors, or condemned by the judge, 
expresses his intention of returning in a 
future state, as a cobra, to bite his children ; 
or as an elephant, to ravage his crops. They 
even go so far as to form an opinion, from 
the nature and habits of any particular animal 
or insect, as to its character in a former state. 
A Pariah dog, for instance, whose presence 
is an abomination, and whose portion is 
misery, is supposed to have been some luxu¬ 
rious Dives, who is now in want and ill- 
treatment, expiating his indifference of the 
lazari of his human acquaintance; and there 


is a little insect very common in the jungle, 
which, from its remarkable habit of surround¬ 
ing itself with a covering of small sticks, in 
the centre of which it moves, and from which 
it is almost impossible to distinguish it, is 
believed by the natives to represent indi¬ 
viduals who, during their earthly career, dis¬ 
played rather a marked partiality for their 
neighbours’ firewood, and who are thus work¬ 
ing out an appropriate atonement.” 

The Buddhists of Ceylon affect to despise 
the superstitions of the Hindoos, and even of 
their own brethren of Siam, where caste is 
recognised in the priesthood, contrary to the 
doctrines of Buddha, and the genius of his 
philosophy; but the observances of caste, 
and other superstitious practices, arc usual 
among the Cingalese themselves, and are just 
as puerile as those they contemn in others. 
These are particularly obvious at their religious 
festivals. At the feast of the Pirahara, which 
seems to be the grand Kandian sacred festi¬ 
val, extending over a period of seven days, 
the most grotesque and absurd ceremonies 
are practised. A procession of seven ele¬ 
phants, decked out in a manner excessively 
provocative of mirth, each animal carrying 
an empty “ howdah,” followed by crowds of 
men bearing empty palankeens, and a long 
retinue of chiefs and headmen, gaily attired; 
the most horrid din of tom-toms and pipes, 
filling the air with discord, is the chief feature 
of “ the solemnity.” On one of these occa¬ 
sions, an English gentleman saw a fakeer in 
the procession, with a wire run through both 
his cheeks, and a lighted candle at each end, 
about six inches from the face. This man 
was regarded as performing a work of great 
merit, and as having attained to a saintly 
degree. These processions are conducted at 
night, so that the “voluntary humility” of 
the fakeer was in that instance not without 
its convenience to others. 

Evil spirits are especially worshipped, 
simply for the power which they are sup¬ 
posed to possess, and so willing to exercise, 
for mischievous purposes. When a demon is 
offended, dancing is supposed to be the most 
efficacious mode of appeasing his wrath. If 
a member of a family come by any misfor¬ 
tune, or fall sick, a priest of some particular 
devil is called in, offerings are presented, and 
the dance commences. If a village, or dis¬ 
trict, is visited by pestilence, or any national 
evil, pulpits are erected by the devil’s priest, 
and decorated with flowers, wreaths, money, 
incense, &c.; while various matters propitia¬ 
tory are offered by this sacerdotal official: 
after “ a devil dance,” the grand incantation 
is read, and the ill-disposed demon is entreated 
to depart. 




Ciivr. VIII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


179 


The proceedings of the devil-dancers by no 
means resemble those who enjoy the pastime of 

“ The light fantastic toe ; ” 

the whole ceremony is appalling to those who 
witness it, as it is degrading to those who 
practise it, and cannot be excelled in folly by 
any of the Brahminical superstitions of conti¬ 
nental India. A spectator of the orgies thus 
describes them:—“The kapua, or devil- 
dancers, are usually well-grown, active men, 
and wear on their arms and ankles several 
hollow brass rings: they keep time to the 
tom-tom beatei’3 by shaking their head, whilst 
the clanking of the bracelets and anklets 
makes a species of accompaniment. The 
evolutions of the dancer are rapid; his ges¬ 
tures lascivious and indecent; as he becomes 
excited with the music and the dance, his 
flesh will quiver, his eyeballs become fixed 
and staring, as if he could, or would, discern 
the form of the offended demon; whilst in 
this state, he will predict the cause of the 
aroused wrath of the demon, the fate or for¬ 
tune of individuals. These dances are held 
at night, by torchlight; and no scene can be 
imagined more painfully impressive than to 
witness the frantic gestures of the devil- 
dancer, with his long, dishevelled hair stream¬ 
ing over his shoulders, the blue flame from 
the torches flickering and casting an un¬ 
earthly light on all around, whilst the dusky 
spectators remain motionless, gazing, with 
staring eyes, on the dancer; the huge tro¬ 
pical trees waving over the heads of all, as if 
calmly deriding, although compelled to 'wit¬ 
ness, the unhallowed rites and vicious orgies 
which invariably wind up a devil-dance.” 

The moral condition of the people, as in 
all nations, may be inferred from their reli¬ 
gion. The Kandians and Cingalese are Avith- 
out principle: their highest rule of duty is 
convenience. Knox represented the women 
as, in his time, the most regardless of their 
infant female offspring of any in the world, 
and consequently the crime of infanticide aauis 
awfully common : the authority and vigilance 
of government have not been as yet sufficient 
to repress it. The object of this crime is to put 
females out of the Avay, lest they should grow 
r;p a burden. When learned Buddhists at 
Kandy haA r e been reproached with this na¬ 
tional cruelty, they have replied, “ But it is 
not so bad as in England, Avhere a Avife or 
child is poisoned for the sake of a feAV rupees : 
our female infants are not murdered, they are 
deprived of life upon a principle 'which has 
received public, social, and religious sanction.” 
The character of the women of Ceylon is 
horribly impure; according to Knox, a Kan- 
dian woman Avill not often submit herself to a 


man of a loAA’er caste than her oaaui, but in all 
other respects their behaviour is utterly and 
shockingly immoral, and apparently without 
the least sense of shame. Caste is not osten¬ 
sibly recognised, but really reverenced. The 
practice of brother-husbands is extremely 
debasing. If in a family there are several 
brothers, and any one of the number marries, 
the bride becomes equally the Avife of the 
other brothers, who may themselves be only 
half-brothers—the children of one mother by 
several fathers. The object of this extra¬ 
ordinary and demoralising community, is to 
preserve landed property in the same family, 
so that it should not be divided and sub¬ 
divided until it of necessity passed aAvay from 
the lineage of those to whom it originally 
belonged. Thus an entail is socially en¬ 
forced without any legal recognition. Some¬ 
times the Avife of several brother-husbands 
Avill take another husband out of the 
family, provided he joins his property to 
theirs. This, if it be considerable, is gene¬ 
rally an arrangement desired by the previous 
husband. It must not be supposed, from 
this domestic communism, that men are not 
jealous in Ceylon ; they are certainly less so 
where there are several husbands than where 
one only exists; they are, however, very 
jealous, and perpetually recewe just cause, 
if, indeed, in such a depraved social condition, 
the like Avould be recognised at all. When 
this feeling is aroused, they are exceedingly 
resentful; and as they generally carry a knife 
or dagger about the person, concealed in a 
sheath or pocket, on such occasions they will 
draw it, and inflict death upon the offender. 
This is done even upon suspicion, and as 
cause for that is perpetually given, wounds 
and death frequently occur in braAAds about 
Avomen. Meanness, cowardice, and contempt¬ 
ible treachery, characterise the men of both 
the upper and lower country, but more espe¬ 
cially the latter; and they resort to every 
conceivable artifice to accomplish petty fraud. 

In their feelings towards other religions 
than their own, they are strangely tolerant 
and persecuting at the same time. The 
slightest disrespect towards one of their relics 
will cause a paroxysm of rage and animosity; 
and it is astonishing Iioav small a cause Avill 
move them to ' this bigoted resentment. 
A gentleman connected Avith the govern¬ 
ment, on one occasion Avas favoured with a 
sight of “the tooth,” in the presence of a 
Kandian chief of note, and of the high priest 
of the temple. A small image of Buddha 
attracted his attention, and he took it up by 
the shoulder with one hand, contrary to the 
ritual of Buddhism, which ordains that an 
image of Buddha should be raised by the 



180 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VIII. 


feet, and with both the hands of the person 
who touches it. The gentleman’s inadver¬ 
tency threw his guides into a state of de¬ 
spair and furious horror, they regarding him 
as a monster of iniquity, upon whom the 
judgment of heaven might be speedily ex¬ 
pected to descend. Only after many apolo¬ 
gies and assurances of regret that his igno¬ 
rance should have exposed him to an unin¬ 
tentional act of irreverence, could he succeed 
in appeasing these men. With all this in¬ 
tense sensitiveness of the respect demanded 
for their religion, they are not generally 
unwilling to tolerate the creed which may 
be preferred by strangers. They will enter 
a Roman Catholic chapel, and bow to any 
images or pictures which may be there, and 
offer the most reverential respect to the offi¬ 
ciating priest; and will proceed forthwith to 
one of their own temples, and pay the same 
respect to the images of Buddha, the deities, 
and the devils. They will enter a Protestant 
assembly, listen to the instructions conveyed, 
and insist that the ultimate doctrines to which 
these refer are identical with Buddhism, 
assuring their interrogators that “ it is all 
the same religion;” only of course regarding 
their own as the highest and most perfect 
development. The servants in an English 
family will readily join in evangelical wor¬ 
ship, but if they hear the tom-tom, and the 
cries of the devil-dancers, will jump up from 
their knees, and hasten to participate in the 
ceremonial. They will freely give their 
assent to the most beautiful and truthful 
descriptions of a separate state, of the resur¬ 
rection of the body and life everlasting; and 
afterwards, if asked to define their own hopes, 
show that they look forward to a transmigra¬ 
tion the most degrading and absurd. A boy 
at the mission-school at Kandy, who was 
supposed to be peculiarly well instructed, 
when asked, out of the routine of his usual 
catechetical examinations, what he hoped for 
in the next world, promptly replied that he 
hoped he would become a snake, which seems 
•to be the grand desideratum of Kandians, for 
whom a heaven of cobras is a prospect of bliss. 
Under these circumstances, the labours of 
missionaries are very discouraging; yet they 
are not entirely without success. The Roman 
Catholics have many converts, and mission¬ 
aries of various evangelical denominations 
from the British Isles have laboured long and 
zealously, and with some requital for their 
pleasing and sacred toil. 

As early as 1820, schools were instituted 
in the province of Kandy by missionaries, 
and still earlier on the coast. In 1845, Cey¬ 
lon was constituted, by letters patent under 
the great seal of England, an episcopal see, 


under the title of Colombo; previous to that 
the island was included in the episcopate of 
Madras. In 1846, Dr. Chapman arrived as 
the first Bishop of Colombo, and zealously 
entered upon his charge, showing the utmost 
concern for the spiritual and moral welfare of 
Europeans and natives. 

The various voluntary missionary societies 
maintain missionaries, and the Bible and 
Tract Societies of England have given to 
Ceylon a large share of attention; copies of 
the Holy Scriptures, and portions of them, 
and also religious tracts and books, are sup¬ 
plied to whatever extent there is hope of 
their proving useful. 

However indifferent the Buddhists may be 
to the presence of other religions, they are 
hostile to proselytism, and regard the aban¬ 
donment of their ancient customs as a crime. 
This is one reason why all Roman Catholic 
and Protestant converts so strenuously keep 
up their old Buddha practices, especially at 
weddings, and the naming of children. In 
this respect Romanists and Protestants among 
the natives are scarcely distinguishable from 
Buddhists, although the Moormen or Moham¬ 
medans are somewhat strict in preserving 
themselves from contact with what they deem 
to be idolatrous. After the marriage and 
baptismal ceremonies of Protestants and 
Roman Catholics, even amongst the highest 
castes of natives, and who serve the govern¬ 
ment officially, the persons interested adjourn 
to their assigned rendezvous, and enact all 
the ceremonial of a purely Buddhist celebra¬ 
tion. The prospect of these rites becoming 
less popular, through the influence of the in¬ 
creased energy of Protestant missionaries, has 
inflamed the bigotry of the Buddhist priests, 
if the ministers of the temples of Buddha can 
be properly so designated. In the Kandian 
rebellion of 1848, these functionaries per¬ 
formed the most pi'ominent part, and their 
animosity to the government had, in a great 
measure, its source in their jealousy of the 
influence of their old rites and observances, 
which they feared would pass away, and 
with it their own prestige, under the moral 
influence of a powerful Christian govern¬ 
ment. 

The Cingalese language has the reputation 
of being euphonious: some oriental scholars 
aver that it is fundamentally allied to the 
Siamese; others declare that it is of Sanscrit 
origin. As in continental India, there is a 
sacred language, which is the medium of 
literature—this is called in Ceylon, Elu : it is 
only understood by educated persons.* Some 
suppose that it was the vernacular language 
of the island before it was conquered by the 
* Clough’s Ceylonese Dictionary. 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


1S1 


Chap. VIII.] 

continental followers of Wijeya. Indepen¬ 
dent of the language of literature, there is a 
high and low Cingalese—the former spoken 
in Kandy, the latter in the lower provinces: 
the Kandians, however, generally understand 
both, while the Cingalese of the lower parts 
of the island cannot speak the high dialect. 
There are two written characters: the most 
ancient, the prevailing form of which is 
square, has become obsolete; it is found in 
ancient inscriptions, but cannot be entirely 
deciphered, as the knowledge of it has 
died away: it is called Nagara. In con¬ 
sequence of this, a great store of the ancient 
history of Ceylon is lost, and probably inte¬ 
resting facts concerning other peoples are 
thus buried in the gloom of the past. Mr. 
Prinsep,* in 1837, published an account of 
certain inscriptions found on stones and rocks 
in continental India: some resemblance is 
recognised between these and the old Cinga¬ 
lese letters. The present Cingalese charac¬ 
ters are round in their general form. The 
higher castes write elegantly with an iron 
style upon the palmyra leaf: a composition, 
prepared chiefly of charred gum, being rubbed 
over the composition, brings out the letters in 
dark colour. 

The books of the natives are in MS., and 
written upon the leaves of the taliput-tree. 
These leaves do not perish, and the prepara¬ 
tion rubbed over them preserves them from 
insects; so that the books or MSS., which¬ 
ever they may be styled, of the Cingalese are 
preserved from a remote antiquity. It is 
alleged that the accredited historical records 
of the island, by such means, go back two 
thousand three hundred years.y There are 
many such works in the Pali and Sanscrit, 
and treatises on grammar, medicine, astro¬ 
logy, music, natural philosophy, jurispru¬ 
dence, and theology. Their idea of fine 
writing is, however, puerile, and their poetical 
compositions fantastical. Graceful thought 
and pleasant conceits abound; but high con¬ 
ception is seldom or never to be met with. 
The poets of Cingalese antiquity seem to 
have been a vain and frivolous order, who 
studied to be artificial, and to display their 
learning. Their misfortunes at least equalled 
their vanity, and are much more remarkable 
than their genius; for some of the most 
tragical stories of Cingalese history are con¬ 
nected with either the love or loyalty of her 
poets. 

It will be appropriate in this place to 
notice the music of the people, as it is so 
intimately connected with their literature, for 
they sing or drone their favourite composi¬ 
tions to the accompaniment of their “dulcets” 
* Jsiatic Journal of Calcutta. y Sirr. 


and tom-toms, on which occasions the noise 
raised is dissonant beyond the endurance of 
Europeans. A law was enacted, prohibit¬ 
ing these recitations and singings, when ac¬ 
companied by drums, &c., between the hoiirs 
of eight in the evening and eight in the morn¬ 
ing, as no European could enjoy repose in 
their vicinity. The horanawa, a shrill and 
discordant kind of pipe, affords the peo¬ 
ple inexpressible pleasure. An instrument 
much more unmusical to European ears is 
the chanque shell, which may be called the 
trumpet of the Cingalese. A sort of violin is 
made of a half a cocoa-nut shell, with a 
sounding-board of the skin of the guana, 
a bow of horsehair, and two strings, one of 
the same material, another of flax; two little 
bells are attached to it, and this toy is re¬ 
garded as an instrument almost divine by 
high-caste natives. The singing or reciting 
of a native poem, with the din of accompani¬ 
ments from a concert of these instruments, is 
as torturing a process to an English tympanum 
as can -well be conceived. 

Physicians are regarded as depositaries of 
human learning, but the chief accomplishment 
for which they are valued is astrology. If 
by astrological power the mcdicus determines 
that the disease is inflicted as a punishment 
by the gods, he leaves the patient to be dealt 
with by them, but if the disease has come in 
a natural way, he endeavours “to ripen” and 
then cure it. 

There are various books or manuscripts ex¬ 
tant on medical science, in which nearly six 
hundred diseases are treated of, showing that 
Ceylon can claim her full proportion of the 
ills to which flesh is heir. The general ad¬ 
ministration of medicine prescribed resembles 
that of the old physicians in England. An 
amazing number of ingvedients are cast in to¬ 
gether, in order to balance one another, and 
in the hope that all will not fail to produce 
some favourable effect. Mr. Sirr, from his 
own personal knowledge, bears the following 
testimony to the skill of the native oculists :— 
“ Many of their practitioners are excellent 
oculists, and are thoroughly conversant with 
numerous medicinal drugs (unknown to Euro¬ 
peans) which produce a speedy effect in 
relieving ophthalmia. In Ceylon ophthalmia 
is alike prevalent amongst human beings and 
animals; but there is one form of this dis¬ 
tressing complaint which is. solely confined 
to quadrupeds. A minute worm is either 
engendered or received into the watery 
humours of the eye, which causes the eyeball 
to enlarge; as soon as the swelling subsides, 
the colouring matter of the pupil assumes a 
bluish tint, and total loss of vision speedily 
ensues. The vegetable remedies used by the 



182 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VIII. 


natives appear to cause the animal acute pain, 
hut, when they are judiciously applied by a 
skilful practitioner, invariably restore the 
vision, and effect a complete cure.” 

The same authority may be quoted as to 
the professional attainments of the native 
surgeons, who are, he avers, skilled in phle¬ 
botomy and cauterising. Amputation of a 
limb is performed by a redhot knife, and 
successfully, so far as the preservation of the 
patient’s life is concerned. He quotes the 
words of an informant, who witnessed the 
treatment of a dislocation by a native sur¬ 
geon, and which is recorded in the following 
terms:—“ During our journey one of the 
coolies fell down, and dislocated his ankle 
joint. On reaching the next village the 
surgeon was sent for, who, after a careful 
examination of the injured limb, ordered the 
patient to be assisted to a plantation of cocoa- 
nut trees, and seme coir or rope to be brought 
to him. He then placed the patient against 
a tree, to which he securely fastened him by 
the shoulders, whilst the foot of the injured 
limb was tightly attached by a noosed rope 
to another tree. Through the noose the 
surgeon passed a short, but strong stick, 
which he repeatedly twisted until the rope 
was completely tightened, and the limb 
stretched out to its fullest extent; he then 
suddenly withdrew the stick, and allowed the 
cord to untwist itself. The patient, who had 
bellowed and squealed like a mad wild dog 
during the operation, was then released, and 
upon examination the dislocation was re¬ 
duced.” 

There is but one disease which the native 
doctors, and the native medical treatises, 
do not regard as curable, which seems to 
be a form of dropsy, and which never attacks 
Europeans; neither does it extend to the 
natives of continental India, although dropsy, 
and other diseases of a dropsical character, 
are not uncommon there. It has received 
the nosological designation from some Euro¬ 
peans of hydrops asthmatic'lls. “This terrible 
disease commences with general debility and 
oppressed breathing, the extremities become 
distended with watery effusion, paralysis en¬ 
sues, whilst other symptoms of dropsy display 
themselves, often running their course with 
great rapidity. There is frequently anxiety, 
also, with palpitation of the heart, and occa¬ 
sionally vomiting and spasms are present.” * 

Having given a description at large of the 
island, its seenery, people, religion, and lite¬ 
rature, there remains for this chapter some 
account of its cities. 

The native capital, as before mentioned, is 
Kandy. The situation of this city among 
* Dr. C. Rogers. 


the bold elevations of the Kandian highlands 
has also been named. The site upon which 
it stands, and its immediate neighbourhood, 
are extremely picturesque, the former being 
at the broad end of a pear-shaped lake, which 
nearly fills a beautiful valley, formed by hills 
of varied and striking outline. The native 
name is Maha Neura, or Great City. The 
Mehavelleganga, or River of Sand, flows past 
three sides of the town. Its reaches are 
sometimes grand, and it is bright and rapid, 
but is, nevertheless, a source of insalubrity to 
Kandy. It is remarkable that tanks are 
generally healthy, while rivers conduce to 
disease throughout the island. Old English 
residents, who will not hesitate to place their 
residences beside large tanks or lakes, will 
avoid the river courses. The former are 
covered with peculiar plants, which purify 
the water; the latter bear down and dis¬ 
tribute on their banks large quantities of 
vegetable matter, which, quickly decomposing 
beneath a hot sun, spread sickness and death. 
In the centre of the lake is a low massive 
building of considerable extent, used as the 
magazine. This was formerly the royal 
harem, and tales of terror, similar to those 
for which the Bosphorus is notorious, are 
told of the history of that place. The 
lake itself is artificial; considering the body 
of water flowing around so large a portion of 
the town, it might be supposed that any 
addition, even for the purpose of heightening 
the picturesque, was scarcely desirable. A 
road encircles the lake, and the whole valley 
is so well sheltered by the great elevation of 
the surrounding hills, that Europeans can 
enjoy exercise in the open air almost as freely 
as in a more temperate zone. 

The town consists of two main streets, 
crossing each other at right angles, the whole 
line marked by open shops, where business 
is transacted in a most indolent manner. 
The dealers are seldom honest; and they 
often meet their eouals in sharp practice 
among their customers. There is another 
street (a sort of suburb) stretching in a 
south-easterly direction from the temple and 
the palace. The court-house was formerly 
the hall of audience of the Kandian monarclis: 
and in that room public worship used to be 
conducted by the British chaplain, previous to 
the erection of the present appropriate church. 
The barracks of the Ceylon Rifles are spa¬ 
cious, and there is also a good artillery bar¬ 
racks. “ The Queen’s House,” built for the 
occasional residence of the governor, is ele¬ 
gant and commodious, and, from being en¬ 
crusted with a peculiar preparation resembling 
chunam, it has the appearance of being built 
with marble. It commands a view of the 






Chap. VIII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


183 


whole town, and of a large extent of the 
neighbouring country. The house occupies the 
centre of a large lawn, ornamented with the 
finest palms and magnolias, the whole being- 
surrounded by a spacious and well-kept park, 
planted with every variety of tree, native 
and exotic, and blooming with the flowering- 
shrubs of Ceylon and Madras. It would be 
scarcely possible for any official residence to 
be more beautifully situated, the park afford¬ 
ing mountain views of great extent, variety, 
and elevation, and overlooking from its higher 
grounds neighbouring valleys of the softest 
beauty. The citadel, if such it may be called, 
is situated on “ One Tree Hill,” and between 
it and Atgallee, seven miles distant on the 
Trincomalee road, a system of signals has 
been established. 

Around the town are many good houses, 
occupied by officials and European settlers. 
The situations of these residences are delight¬ 
ful, combining the advantages of productive 
gardens, fields, and orchards, with some of 
the loveliest scenery in the world. Pure 
water fit for drinking, is scarce. Although 
the town is fifteen hundred feet above the 
sea level, rarely, in any situation about 
Kandy, does the climate agree with English¬ 
men. This is the more remarkable, for in 
continental India an equal height is uni¬ 
versally healthy; and at Kandy the jungle 
is cleared, cultivation maintained, and the 
advantanges of civilisation generally pos¬ 
sessed. 

The town is approached on every side by 
mountain passes, which add much to the 
picturesque character of the neighbourhood. 
A tunnel was formed by the British through 
one of the mountains which begirt the dis¬ 
trict. This tunnel was five hundred and 
thirty-seven feet in length, and, in a military 
point of view, was of great value. The follow¬ 
ing interesting particulars concerning it, from 
Ceylon and the Cingalese, show how civilisa¬ 
tion impresses barbaric peoples with the idea 
of power :—“ The tunnel was constructed by 
order of Sir Edward Barnes, to consolidate, 
so to speak, the British power after Kandy 
came into our possession; for a legend has 
been extant, from time immemorial, that no 
foreign power could retain the Kandian 
dominions until a path teas bored through 
the mountain! And a chief told us, that 
when his countrymen beheld this task com¬ 
menced, their hearts failed them; but when 
they saw it completed, and men walking 
through the bow T els of the earth, they then 
knew it was their destiny to be ruled by a 
nation who could pierce rocks and undermine 
mountains. The tunnel was completed on 
the 8th of December, 1823, but w r e regret to 


say this has now collapsed, and the road is 
impassable. This tunnel, the principal car¬ 
riage roads, and bridges, never could have 
been constructed, had not the system of com¬ 
pulsory labour been adopted by our govern¬ 
ment, as it had been carried on under the 
native dynasty. ^ By order of the king in 
council, in 1832, all compulsory services, and 
forced labour of every description, was de¬ 
clared illegal, and abolished. Whilst making 
the excavations for the tunnel some rare and 
valuable gems -were discovered, and the only 
ruby we have ever seen without flaw or 
defect in colour was found at that period.” 

One of the most interesting features of the 
neighbourhood to the British is the abundance 
of game, for they retain in Ceylon, as in every 
other colony or settlement, their inveterate 
love of hunting and shooting. So various is 
the country in its aspects, formation, and 
vegetation, that this propensity can be abun¬ 
dantly gratified. The elephant, the leopard, 
and the wild hog, may be pursued by the 
bolder sportsman; the deer and the fox by those 
less adventurous ; and nearly all the species 
of birds known to the tropics may be bagged 
by the fowler. 

On another page a description was given 
of the temple of the sacred tooth in this 
vicinity. The other buildings held in vene¬ 
ration by the people are the palace, and, more 
especially, the tombs. The palace is fast 
falling away. It must have been at one 
period a superb building; its frontage is 
eight hundred feet. The walls are decorated 
with stone carvings of much pretension. Ele¬ 
phants, suns, moons, stars, and other emblems 
of royalty, are the figures upon which the 
taste of the native workmen w T as expended. 
The stone framework of the doors is carved 
in a higher style of art. 

Colombo is the modern, or English capital, 
the seat of supreme government, as Kandy is 
the local capital of the upper country, and the 
ancient metropolis. It is situated in latitude 
6° 57' north, and longitude 79° 50' east. The 
harbour is a semicircle, but it has a bar, and 
a reef, called “the Drunken Sailor;” and 
these are not the only impediments to the 
safety of shipping. It is therefore a bad 
seaport, and has little commerce, considering 
that it is the capital, although there is a con¬ 
siderable importation of rice, and a large con¬ 
course of coolies passing to and from the 
continent. Goods are frequently sent to Point 
de Galle by the road; and as Colombo is the 
seat of government, there is a brisk intercourse 
between it and the interior. In the coffee 
export season it has an air of great bustle. 
The heat is said by some to be greater there 
than anywhere else in the island, and yet 



184 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VIIE 


those who so affirm represent it as the healthiest 
situation Ceylon possesses, except the sana¬ 
torium, and the places already noticed as 
occupying a nearly equal elevation. 

According to native books, it was a town 
of some importance in the sixth century of 
our era. In 1518 the Portuguese occupied 
and began to fortify it. After the Dutch 
expelled them, the fortifications which they 
formed were strengthened. The English, in 
their turn, improved the defences. The fort 
occupies a small promontory, and is large 
enough to hold a garrison of eight thousand 
men. It mounts a hundred and thirty-one 
guns and mortars. Slave Island, outside the 
fort, contains barracks, where the Gun Lascars 
and Ceylon Rifles, frequently recruited at the 
Cape of Good Hope, are quartered. 

The principal street in the fort is Queen 
Street, in which the government house is 
erected. The building is as little worthy of 
its purpose as St. James’s Palace, Buckingham 
Palace, Kensington Palace, Dublin Castle, 
the Viceregal Lodge in that city, Holyrood 
House, or any other palace of her majesty’s 
in the British Isles except Windsor. It is, 
as a native chief remarked to an English 
official, “ plenty small.” The gardens are, 
however, very cheering, and large in propor¬ 
tion to the dwelling to which they are at¬ 
tached ; they are said, like the botanical gar¬ 
dens near Kandy, to contain a specimen of 
every tree, shrub, plant, and flower which is 
indigenoits to the island. The lighthouse, 
which is to the rear of the queen’s house, 
is nearly a hundred feet high, and is very 
efficient for its object. The military and 
civil offices are all situated near the govern¬ 
ment house. The post office is a building of 
some importance. There are a good normal 
school, a public library, and several banks, in 
the same neighbourhood. The Scotch church, 
and one of the English churches, have sites 
also in this street. 

From the principal thoroughfare other 
streets branch off, which are again inter¬ 
sected by minor ones. The medical museum 
and library, a military hospital and an English 
church, occupy less eligible situations than 
the other buildings named; and there are 
large and good shops in some of the smaller 
and less imposing streets. As in Madras and 
Bombay, the business of the great commercial 
houses is carried on within the fort, but the 
merchants generally reside beyond the town, 
in the neighbourhood of a large artificial 
piece of water, rendered wholesome by the 
presence of aquatic plants, which are in this 
respect so useful both in continental and 
insular India. 

The Pettah is a long range of street with¬ 


out the fort, entirely occupied by shops, where 
a great deal of business is done. The dealers 
are chiefly Moormen, a class supposed to be 
descended from those Avho, in the early ages, 
carried the cinnamon, spices, and precious 
stones of Ceylon to the Red Sea, the Persian 
Gulf, and even to the coasts of the Mediter ¬ 
ranean. These men are Mohammedans ; 
they seldom accept service with Europeans, 
deeming it an indignity: they are proud, 
brave, enterprising, and industrious, and hold 
the other natives, especially the Cingalese, in 
utter contempt. This race employ themselves 
as carriers, sailors, chapmen, pedlars, and 
agriculturists, and frequently with spirit; 
they thrive, and several have realised con¬ 
siderable fortunes. They sell goods of equal 
value to those Europeans vend in the fort, 
and do not demand near the price. Branch¬ 
ing from the Pettah there are many small lane- 
like streets, chiefly occupied by the burghers, 
or half-caste men, whose genius for carving- 
ebony and other woods is very remarkable. 
Their execution is exquisite. It is surprising 
that a market is not found in England for 
the delicate carvings of fruit and flowers, 
executed in the beautiful woods of Ceylon. 
Near the Pettah there are numerous churches : 
the Roman Catholic for the half-caste de¬ 
scendants of the Portuguese ; Dutch chm-ches 
for those who* claim a half-caste connexion 
with the original colonists of that nation ; and 
two churches of the English establishment. 
The modern missionary societies, particularly 
those of the Baptists and the Wesleyans, 
have also their places of worship. The Mo¬ 
hammedans have a mosque, and the Brahmins 
a temple, which is covered with carvings of 
elephants, lions, and tigers. The religionists 
least provided for in Colombo are the Bud¬ 
dhists, although more numerous in the town 
and neighbourhood than all the rest put to¬ 
gether. The Church of England has extra 
provision made for its professors. The Euro¬ 
pean garrison generally attend either the 
English Episcopal churches in the fort, the 
Scotch church there, or the Roman Catholic 
chapel in the Pettah. The Society for Pro¬ 
moting Christian Knowledge, the British and 
Foreign Bible Society, and the Church Mis¬ 
sionary Society, have institutions near the 
Pettah, in the neighbourhood of the English 
churches. There are also local charitable 
establishments in that vicinity—such as the 
Leper Hospital, Poor-house and Hospital, 
Dispensary, and Colombo Friend-in-Need 
Society. The government schools are pro¬ 
perly located among the native population. 
All the law courts, offices, and dwellings con¬ 
nected with them, are situated beyond the 
fort—such as the Supreme Court-house, Dis- 



Chap. VIII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


185 


trict Court, Court of Requests, Police Office, 
Cutcherry, and Fiscal’s Office. 

There are two classes of persons very much 
to he pitied at Colombo. One of these, until 
very lately, has been ill-treated everywhere— 
the British Soldier. The author of these 
pages has no disposition to seek occasions for 
animadversion upon the constitution or com¬ 
mand of the British army, but, in his History 
of the War against Russia, it was his duty 
to bring out many features of neglect and 
harshness in our military system towards the 
soldiery, and his doing so met with the appro¬ 
bation of so numerous a body of officers, many 
of the highest rank, as to prove that a desire 
for reform pervades those classes. In Co¬ 
lombo, so late as 1854, the English sentinels 
within the fort, under the intense heat of the 
climate, and in situations where that heat 
was made even more oppressive, were clothed 
precisely as they would be if on duty at the 
Tower or Kensington Palace—the heavy 
cap, the close-breasted coat, stock, &c., with¬ 
out any mitigation whatever ! The ill-health 
and suffering of the soldier consequent upon 
this folly and inhumanity on the part of 
those in authority may readily be conceived, 
even by those who have never felt the burn¬ 
ing heat and enervating climate of Colombo. 

The other ill-used functionaries are the 
police. Their apparel is just the same as if 
they were stationed at Hyde Park Corner or 
St. Paul’s Churchyard, except that, as the 
natives (who constitute the police) wear long 
hair, coiled up behind, and fastened with 
high combs, hats are impossibilities. Peaked 
caps are substituted ; but having no place 
on which to put them, the headgear of 
a Cingalese defying the adjustment of a cap 
on his head, he hangs it on the roll of hair 
and the comb, in a manner quite as useful to 
him as if he carried it on a pole, like a cap of 
liberty! Notwithstanding the ludicrous aspect 
of the police, all this absurdity was persisted 
in, at all events up to a recent period. The 
men, encased in the tight clothes, were nearly 
useless. Having been always accustomed to 
the easy habiliments of the East, such a uni¬ 
form is intolerable to them; and they also, 
like the European soldiery, suffer much pain 
and discomfort, and frequently incur ill-health. 

The Galle Face is favourably situated to 
catch the cooling sea-breezes, and is therefore 
the fashionable resort for riding and driving 
in the evening; it is the Hyde Park of Co¬ 
lombo, and is described by most writers as 
very beautiful. It is, however, surprising 
what diversity of statement difference of 
taste produces on this subject. One traveller 
thus writes :—“ The view from, and of the 
Galle Face, is absolutely entrancing to the 

VOL. i. 


lover of nature, for cast the eyes where you 
will, the gaze is involuntarily arrested by the 
extreme beauty of the surrounding scenery. 
There lies the boundless ocean, with a ship 
in full sail gliding over its undulating surface, 
the canoes of the natives lightly floating on, 
and skimming over its waters, whilst the 
waves, curvetting and rolling, dash in a 
shower of white foam on to the shore. Bor¬ 
dering the beach is the carriage-drive, which 
encompasses greensward, whereon high-bred 
Arab horses are bounding and prancing, in 
the full enjoyment of exuberant health and 
existence. On the opposite side is the race¬ 
course, over whose variegated turf the steeds 
are caricoling in high glee, whilst the car¬ 
riage-drive that divides the racecourse from 
the greensward is thronged with carriages of 
every description, principally, if not entirely, 
occupied by Europeans, whilst the fantastic¬ 
ally-clad Eastern attendants run at the horse’s 
head or at the side of the vehicle. At the 
back of the racecourse flows the Lake of 
Colombo, the banks being studded with 
drooping palms, whose branches overshadow 
the clear waters, on which float the pink 
lotus and white lily, whilst a bungalow, the 
verandah of which is overgrown with graceful 
creepers, the grounds belonging to it being 
filled with gorgeous-coloured flowering shrubs, 
complete the vista of loveliness on that side. 
Looking from the bungalow, with nought to 
impede the view save the stand on the race¬ 
course, you can distinctly see the grey time- 
mossed ramparts of the Fort of Colombo. In 
due time sunset arrives; then how gloriously 
the planet sinks into the bosom of the sea, in 
majestic tranquillity, as his parting beams 
illumine the green waters, on which they 
glitter in thousands of spariding rays, whilst 
over the azure vault of heaven float violet, 
crimson, and golden-tinted clouds, which, as 
you gaze, fade away in ever varying hues.” 

Another traveller, as observant, if less 
careful in his statements, says,—“ Colombo is 
about as hot and unpicturesque a place as it 
has ever been my luck to visit; to the stranger 
there is neither object of interest or amuse¬ 
ment, and, but for the extreme kindness 
and easy hospitality of its merchants, it 
would puzzle the most contented mind to 
pass a week there without excessive ennui. 
There are, so to speak, three towns, one 
small and compact, situated within the Dutch 
fort, composed chiefly of government and 
merchants’ offices, barracks, and shops, and 
two long straggling suburbs without the walls, 
stretching and stinking in opposite directions. 
A large fresh-water lagoon, of a most green, 
slimy, tropical, appearance, producing in 
abundance a lotus of almost Victoria Regia 

B B 



I8G 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. VIII. 


magnificence, stretches away to the hack of 
the fort, and aronnd it are situated the bunga¬ 
lows of many of the Colombo merchants. The 
propinquity of this lake would in any other 
tropical country (in the West Indies certainly) 
he considered as ensuring a considerable 
amount of fever to the neighbourhood; in 
fact, I doubt whether any advantage would 
be sufficient to induce a West Indian to locate 
in such a position. However, Ceylon, in the 
matter of climate, stands per se, and offers a 
total antithesis as regards the healthiness 
of certain districts to most other tropical 
countries.” 

The testimony of this writer (who obviously 
states his honest impression), as to the ennui 
of Colombian society, is not without sup¬ 
porters ; yet there are excellent witnesses to 
the contrary, according to whom the open-air 
enjoyments of the Europeans, while the sun 
is very low in the horizon, and after sunset, are 
enlivening and delightful. Carriage airing 
and equestrian exercise are highly enjoyed, 
and the cool breezes enable the horseman or 
pedestrian to exert himself almost at will. 
The natives are as anxious to shun these cool 
airs as the Europeans are to enjoy them, and 
shrink shivering from the breeze by which 
the English are invigorated for the heat of 
another day. “ The night side” of the Cey¬ 
lon metropolis has been depicted in the fol¬ 
lowing language, which only an eye-witness 
could employ :—“ As the shades of evening 
advance, gradually the Galle Face becomes 
deserted, and, long before nightfall, the neigh- 
Jng of the horses and the rumbling of wheels 
are no more heard, the only sounds greeting 
the ear being the soughing of the night - 
breeze, and the breaking of the waves on the 
shingly beach. When night has ‘ thrown her 
sable mantle o’er the earth,’ the aspect of the 
scene changes, for over the lake hover myriads 
of fire-flies, clouds of them flitting about in 
the air, then alighting on the waving leaves 
of the palms, causing the foliage to appear 
illuminated. Some few will settle on the 
floating leaves of the lotus, two or three will 
creep into the flower, sparkling like brilliants; 
then more of these luminous insects will 
alight on other aquatic plants, and the waters 
will glisten with a million minute specks of 
light. Then, innumerable numbers will wing 
their flight upwards, until the air appears 
replete with a shower of the moon’s beams. 
Many' will then settle, possibly on a tall 
banana; the outline of the gigantic graceful 
leaves being distinctly defined by the dazzling 
specks of fire upon them. Nought can be 
imagined more exquisitely lovely than this 
varied natural panorama; and although in the 
mountainous parts of the island, the face of 


nature may assume a sublimer aspect, never 
does she wear a more pleasing, characteristic, 
and truly oriental one, than in the vicinity of 
the Galle Face of Colombo.” 

It is in the neighbourhood of this city that 
the principal cinnamon gardens of the island 
are. A plantation resembles a copse of laurel, 
from the way in which the bushes are formed. 
The shrub, if left to grow, will reach the 
elevation of a tree, frequently to thirty or 
forty feet, the trunk being a foot and a half 
to two feet in circumference. The cinnamon 
is the inner bark. From the fruit, by boiling, 
a substance is obtained like wax, of which 
candles are made, which, in burning, emit a 
grateful odour. 

Trincomalee is a town and harbour on the 
east coast of the island, the road to which 
from Kandy has been already described. It 
is the provincial capital of that part of the 
island, and is situated in 8° 33' north latitude, 
and 81° 13' east longitude. The harbours are 
among the most splendid in the world; the 
inner one being land-locked, and of great 
depth, ships of all size can obtain shelter 
within it. In war time, this has been the 
principal resort of the Indian navy, as there 
are an excellent arsenal and dockyard. The 
fort is extensive, covering an area of several 
miles, and commands the entrance to the 
inner bay. Three miles to the west of Trin¬ 
comalee is the citadel—called Fort Osnaburgh, 
which defends the harbour, and is impregnable 
until the lower fort is conquered. 

The promontory on which the fort is 
erected is dedicated to Siva, and is held in 
great veneration by the Brahminical portion 
of the population of the neighbourhood. “ The 
rock” is especially an object of devout regard, 
because there it is supposed the first temple 
erected in the island to that deity stood. 
Not any vestiges of it now remain. Before 
sunset a priest clambers up the steepest part 
of the rock, his brow bound with a string 
of large beads of many colours, and a yellow 
girdle about his loins. In a fissure, where it 
is supposed the deity resides, betel leaves and 
rice are placed; and as the sun touches the 
wave, the contents of a censer burst into flame, 
spreading around a rich perfume, until the 
disc of the luminary disappears. After various 
salaams and offerings the priest returns, fol¬ 
lowed by sacerdotal and lay attendants. This 
is the most picturesque ceremony of idol- 
worship performed by the Brahminical priests 
in Ceylon. 

The quartz rocks at Trincomalee, viewed from 
the sea, produce a very agreeable impression; 
and the hill or low rocky range skirting the 
port, by its variety of surface and grotesque 
forms, constitutes an interesting object. From 



Chap. VIII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


18'i 


Mil or shore, harbour or open sea, the views ] 
of Trincomalee and its neighbourhood are 
extremely fine. 

According to certain antiquaries the town 
itself dates from the second century of 
our era. At present, it extends in a north¬ 
east direction along the outer hay, and is 
immediately surrounded by hills, which stretch 
inland, covered with rich forests. A wide 
esplanade separates the town from the fort, as 
is the case at the chief seaboard cities of the 
continent. The European population is scanty, 
being confined almost exclusively to the civil 
and military officers. A detachment of the 
Ceylon Rifles generally garrisons the fort. 
There are few public buildings. The Wes- 
leyans, Roman Catholics, and Mohammedans 
have the best religious edifices. The climate 
is considered as insalubrious as the scenery is 
attractive. The natives, consisting chiefly of 
Malabars and Moormen, are generally traders. 
Vast tracts of magnificent country lie beyond 
the town, wretchedly cultivated, or altogether 
neglected. Cholera, so fatal everywhere in 
Ceylon except in the higher regions, is 
more prevalent at Trincomalee than anywhere 
else, except at Jaffnapatam. The European 
soldiers on duty in the fort complain bitterly 
of being obliged to wear the choking stock and 
breasted coat: many of them die of cholera. 

Point de Galle is at the south-western 
extremity of the island, in 6° north latitude, 
and 80° 17' east longitude. The harbour is 
shaped like a horse-shoe, and is fringed by 
masses of yellow rock, worn into curious forms 
by the sea. The aspect of the land is pro¬ 
bably richer in vegetation than that of any 
other spot upon the globe. Travellers de¬ 
scribe its richness in this respect as inconceiv¬ 
able, even by those who have had the most 
extensive acquaintance with the tropics. The 
forest is prolific in all the productions of 
Southern India and Ceylon: the papaw-tree 
(Garica papaya) is very conspicuous among 
them. This tree has a slender tapering stem; 
at the top the leaves spread out in parachute¬ 
like form, enclosing the fruit, which is shaped 
like a melon, and of a bright yellow hue. 

The scenery in the hay is picturesque, 
especially on the arrival of the mail, as Point 
de Galle is the place at which the island mails 
arrive and depart. The natives flock out in 
canoes to meet the Indian or European ships, 


and generally startle and disgust Europeans, 
especially ladies. Except a dirty rag about 
the loins, the Cingalese wear no clothing; 
the Moormen wear a Cambay or cotton robe 
folded around them, and a thickly padded 
cap, to keep off the sun’s rays. The half- 
castes, or burghers, are better clothed, but, 
to strangers, all are repulsive in their 
appearance. 

The landing-place or pier juts out from 
the shore about two hundred feet; the other 
end of it is occupied by the custom-house, a 
very mean building. From the moment the 
traveller enters that place, until he leaves Point 
de Galle, he must be on the defensive, to avert 
extortion and overcharge in every shape, and 
by every description of person. 

The fort comprises nearly the whole town 
—all certainly that is important in it, except 
such places of worship as are erected beyond 
its limits. The defences were nearly all 
erected by the Dutch, and are now somewhat 
old-fasMoned. The garrison consists of the 
Ceylon Rifles and some European infantry. 
The governor has a house here; it is only 
remarkable for its beautiful verandah, shaded 
by fine exotic trees, brought by the Dutch 
from Java. The other houses are very in¬ 
ferior. Beyond the fort there is a Portuguese 
Roman Catholic chapel, and an English 
Wesleyan Mission chapel. Within the fort 
the Dutch church not only accommodates the 
half-castes of that nation, but affords a place 
of worship for English Episcopalians, A 
Mohammedan mosque is the only other well- 
built place of worship that is situated beyond 
the fort. As at Colombo, there is a bazaar 
or market street called the Pettah, which is 
chiefly inhabited by Moormen, who traffic in 
all lands of commodities; they are also usu¬ 
rious money-lenders. Provisions are cheaper 
than at Colombo or Kandy. The neigh¬ 
bourhood is very beautiful, and, but for the 
heat, which is extreme, would be a de¬ 
lightful residence. 

The country, climate, scenery, people, reli¬ 
gion, literature, and chief towns of Ceylon 
have been fujly reviewed in the foregoing 
pages; it will be necessary to refer to it 
again in chapters under general heads—such 
as commerce, &c., as well as in the historical 
portion of the work, when treating of India 
at large. 





188 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMFIRE 


[Chap. IX. 


CHAPTER IX. 


INDEPENDENT STATES. 


It would be difficult in tbe present condition 
of India to name any state as independent, so 
completely bas tbe ascendancy of the East 
India Company been recognised over the 
whole peninsula. Different degrees of inde¬ 
pendence are recognised; and when the 
independence of states bordering upon the 
territory of one more powerful becomes a 
matter of degree, it is little more than cour¬ 
tesy to recognise it at all. Some of these 
states pay a tribute; others are “in charge 
of a resident; ” the political agent of the 
company in one place “takes care of” an in¬ 
dependent sovereignty in the neighbourhood. 
Politically, they are all subject to the British 
government, or in necessary or constrained 
alliance with it. 

The Deccan is less under British influence 
than any other part of India. There exists 
there a network, so to speak, of independent 
territories, mixing one with another and with 
British territory in a most intricate and com¬ 
plicated manner—it being a matter of uncer¬ 
tainty whether many states are subject to 
the English, to native rajahs, or are actually 
independent. The reader, by consulting the 
very large maps of Wylde, will see the in¬ 
dependent native states more distinctly marked 
out from one another, and from the English 
dominions, than in any other maps. They 
are there classified as subsidiary, protected, 
and independent. Under these classifications 
will be found Travancore, the Mysore, the 
Nizam’s dominions, Gwalior, portions of Raj- 
pootana and Gujerat, Cutch, &c. These 
countries are too closely assimilated to the 
British dominions around or near them to 
require separate descriptions within the space 
which can be afforded to this department of 
the work. In the historic portion of it most 
of these countries and their rulers will be 
noticed, as the storjn of war passed over 
them, or they became foci of intrigue. The 
following list comprises those of any import¬ 
ance among native rajahs, states, or tribes, in 
all the degrees of independence or rather de¬ 
pendence above specified:— 


BRITISH ALLIES AND INDEPENDENT STATES. 


The Mysore Rajah. 

The Nizam. 

The Nagpore Rajah (ac¬ 
quired 1856). 

The Guicowar. 

Bhopal. 

Kotah. 

Bondee. 

The Sattara Rajah (acquired 
1842). 


Travancore. 

Cochar. 

States under the Rajahs of 
Jedpore, Jeypore, Odey- 
pore,Bicanur,Jessulmair, 
and other Rajpoot chiefs. 

Holkar. 

Goands, Bheels, Coolies, and 
Catties. 


The chief cities, which are the capitals of 
the independent or quasi-independent states, 
have in some cases historical interest, and 
are of some importance from their site or 
the products of the country around them. 
“ Hyderabad, on the table-land of the Deccan, 
the capital of the nizam’s dominions, is a 
large Moslem city of two hundred thousand 
inhabitants, reputed to be the Sodom of 
India, in allusion to its beautiful neighbour¬ 
hood and the depravity of the people. The 
kingdom contains Aurungabad, named after 
the Mogul emperor Aurungzebe, and Assaye, 
a village, famed for the decisive victory of 
the British under Wellesley in 1803. Nag¬ 
pore, capital of the kingdom so called, on a 
branch of the Godavery, in the north of the 
Deccan, contains a population of upwards of 
eighty thousand. Baroda, the residence of 
the principal native chief of Gujerat, the 
Guicowar of Baroda, near the head of the 
Gulf of Cambay, has a population of one 
hundred thousand, and Ahmedabad, in the 
same state, is equally populous, but with vast 
ruins. Jeypore, near the Toony River, in 
Rajpootana, formerly one of the principal 
seats of Hindoo learning, is remarkably mag¬ 
nificent and regularly built. Gwalior, capital 
of Scindiah, near the central point of India, is 
celebrated for its strong fortress, on an almost 
inaccessible rock. Katmandoo, the capital of 
Nepaul, has little importance. Tassisudon, 
at a great elevation on the Himalayas, is the 
summer capital of Bhotan, being deserted in 
winter on account of the cold.” * 

Gurwal, or, as it is otherwise called, 
Serinaghur, is of little importance as a native 
state, except for its position as one of the 
frontier countries to the north of British 
India. Of late years much of its land has 
been absorbed as British territory. It is 
situated chiefly between the thirtieth and 
thirty-first degrees of north latitude. On the 
south it has the great plain of the Ganges, 
and northward it is separated by the Hima¬ 
layas from Thibet. Its proper limits are de¬ 
fined by a good river boundary to the east 
and west, the Dauli, Ahacananda, and Ram- 
gunga flowing past it on the one side, and 
the Jumna on the other. The political boun¬ 
daries of this country have been changed as 
often as the expediency of the British govern¬ 
ment dictated. 

This is one of the most peculiarly formed 
countries on the Indian continent. It is a 
succession of hills and valleys, and so short 
* Rev. Thomas Milner. 




Oiiat. IX.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


180 


are the distances between the different ranges 
of highland, that it has been affirmed by a 
military officer of experience that there is not 
room for a brigade of infantry to manoeuvre 
anywhere in the valleys. 

The climate is very mild, and at certain 
seasons cold. The forest trees of Europe are 
indigenous—oak, fir, and horse-cliestnnt 
abound ; the holly and other European ever¬ 
greens are to be met with in every direction, 
and the fruits familiar to England, especially 
the strawberry, are those which most luxuri¬ 
antly thrive. Pheasants, and other English 
game, are plentiful. Still there are character¬ 
istics of oriental scenery and animal life, which 
prove that the climate is not identical with 
that of western Europe: the elephant roams 
in the thickets, and the insects and reptiles 
are similar to those in the lower latitudes of 
India. The country is not populous ; but if 
occupied by an enemy, would afford positions 
of strength against an army from India. The 
produce of the country is of considerable 
value, consisting of hemp, wool, gums, lead, 
copper, and sometimes gems are found. The 
capital, Serinaghur, is small, but well situ¬ 
ated for commerce, between the north and 
north-east and the lower country of Hindoo- 
stan. 

When, in 1814, General Gillespie conducted 
military occupations against the Goorkhas, 
he met with a determined resistance from that 
gallant little people, who then held pos¬ 
session of the country. His troops expe¬ 
rienced some severe repulses, and he was 
himself numbered with the slain. 

In the Gurwal and Kumaon country are 
the sources of the Ganges, and at Gangoutri, 
a celebrated place of Hindoo pilgrimage, the 
river bursts forth from beneath an immense 
snow-pile. Here there is a wooden temple, 
in which are the footsteps of the goddess (the 
Ganges) visibly imprinted on a black stone ; 
here also pilgrims bathe in the pools of the 
Ganges. Few trees are seen in this neigh¬ 
bourhood except the birch, and the scenery 
is wildly picturesque. There is an image of 
the Ganges in red stone, also of Siva, Parvati, 
Bhagiratlii, Annapurna, Devi, Vishnu, Brahma, 
and Ganeesa, and a small female figure of 
silver. The face of the country is composed 
of the third ridge of mountains from the 
plain; the fourth or highest range is that 
which separates Hindoostan from Thibet, or 
Southern Tartary. The exact spot in which 
spring the sources of the Ganges is concealed 
by immense snow-heaps. It is remarkable 
that, notwithstanding the intensity of the cold, 
sheep are pastured here ; and when the highest 
range is scaled, or turned by the passes, the 
opposite side is of easy descent, being like 


table-land. Rock-crystal is found around the 
great snow mounds, especially near the sources 
of the river. Great numbers of Brahminical 
devotees from Hindoostan incur heavy toil, 
exposure to cold, which they are badly able 
to endure, and considerable expense, in ascend¬ 
ing these heights, not only to enter the temple 
of Gunga, worship the images, and bathe in 
the sacred pools, but also in quest of Vyas, 
the great legislator of their annals, who, with 
a host of saints and sages, are bnried alive in 
a cavern! The hope of entering such com¬ 
pany, or of inducing them again to enlighten the 
world by their wisdom, is sufficient to inspire 
thousands of pilgrims to undertake long and 
laborious journeys ; but if they fail in realising 
so pleasing a dream, nevertheless their labour 
is not in vain, for the mere fact of performing 
the pilgrimage expiates a multitude of sins, 
removes impending evils, and ensures a happy 
passage through all the stages of transmi¬ 
gration through which the devotee is des¬ 
tined to pass. The people believe that the 
specific gravity of the water of the Ganges, 
taken at its source, exceeds that of all other 
rivers, and that it is too pure to undergo 
corruption. 

Among these hills is the temple of Kedan- 
nath (Ivedera Natha),in latitude 60° 53' north, 
and longitude 79° 18' east, and about sixty - 
one miles from the Gurwal capital. The 
height of the temple above the level of Cal¬ 
cutta is, according to the report of certain 
British officers, nearly twelve thousand feet.* 
The peculiar object of worship in this spot is 
a large misshapen mass of black rock, in the 
shape, according to Hindoo fancy, of the hind 
quarters of a buffalo. The priests here pro¬ 
pagate the most absurd fables, and practise 
the most shameless delusions upon the people. 
On one occasion a party of British officers 
found three female devotees, whom the Brah¬ 
mins instructed to advance from a certain 
point until they reached a precipice of vast 
depth, over which they were to leap, securing 
thereby the expiation of their sins. They 
could not find the rock from which the pious 
plunge was to be taken. One died from the 
cold, another lost one hand and both feet from 
being frost-bitten, and the third had her ex¬ 
tremities mortifying, and every probability 
appeared of her speedy death.f The Aghora 
pantees, mendicant devotees of Aghora, one 
of the names of Siva, are represented as prac¬ 
tising cannibalism as a religious rite.]; 

The little town of Bhadrinath is built on 
the west bank of the Alacanada River, latitude 
30' 43' north, and longitude 79° 39'east, about 
eighty miles north from Almora, in Kumaon. 
This place is remarkable alone for its pie- 
* Captain Webb. t Ibid. % Eaper. 



190 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. IX. 


turesque position and its idolatrous associa¬ 
tions. The temple is built in the form of a 
cave, surmounted by a cupola, with a square 
shelving roof of copper, over which is a gilt 
spire and ball: the height is about fifty feet. 
An earthquake nearly destroyed it at the 
beginning of the present century; but the 
liberality and piety of some Indian princes 
were laid under requisition for its repairs. 
There are various stories of the antiquity of 
this temple, some of them ascribing to it a 
foundation as remote as one thousand years 
before Christ. The chief idol is about three 
feet high, cut out of black marble, and dressed 
in a suit of gold and silver brocade. This is 
a very wealthy idol: at one time it possessed 
seven hundred villages.* The number of 
pilgrims who annually prostrate themselves 
before it are computed at fifty thousand. A 
large retinue of servants attends upon it to 
dress it, feed it, and pay it proper respect! 
The severity of the climate may be conceived 
from the fact that in June the snow has been 
computed to be seventy feet thick.f There 
is a cavern here which the Brahmins allege 
is the abode of multitudes of holy Hindoos, 
who departed this life some thousands of 
years ago. The people in the lower pro¬ 
vinces, who read about it, suppose that these 
holy personages reside on the mountain, and 
are disappointed to learn when they arrive 
after a painful pilgrimage that it is in the 
mountain they have made their sanctuary, and 
that all access is barred by impenetrable 
snows.J 

The province of Kumaon, which is pro¬ 
perly a part of the Gurwal territory, has been 
under the British government since the latter 
expelled the Goorkhas, who exercised a stern 
but generous sovereignty. This province is 
remarkable for its said forests, and its forests 
of fir. The former are superior to any known 
in the low countries; the latter are magni¬ 
ficent. The firs grow in places almost inac¬ 
cessible ; the timber is very superior, and par¬ 
ticularly well adapted for spars, masts, and 
other shipping purposes. They are greatly 
superior to the fir-trees of Europe, being nearly 
as hard and much stronger than teak. The 
Kumaon hills are not only productive in 
timber, but also in hemp, resin, turpentine, oil, 
copper, lead, and iron; small quantities of gold 
are deposited in the sands of the Pavar River 
in its descent. Much intercourse is carried 
on with the Chinese inland province of Hung. 

The people are supposed to be in the main 
aboriginal; they tyrannise over woman, com¬ 
pelling her to work in the field, while the 
men undertake the superintendence of house¬ 
hold affairs. Polygamy is practised on an 
* Buchanan. f Raper. i Buchanan. 


extensive scale, even by the poorest, and with 
a view to the pecuniary advantage of an 
additional number of field labourers, acquired 
by an increase of wives. The Brahmins are 
extremely numerous, and have subjected the 
people to their interests : they possess the 
lands, and have degraded the people almost 
to the condition of slaves, by practising upon 
their ignorance and superstitious feelings. 

Throughout these mountains the most ex¬ 
aggerated idea of the power of the Chinese 
empire used to prevail. When Mr. Gott was 
deputed by Sir Henry Wellesley to investi¬ 
gate the forests of Kumaon, he found the 
people in a state of alarm lest the Chinese 
emperor should hear of his arrival, as he had 
threatened to depose the Rajah of Nepaul if 
any European strangers were permitted to 
enter his territories. 

In some tracts ceded to the British by the 
Nepaulese, the products of the mountains are 
very abundant. Magnificent cedar, horse- 
chestnut, yew, sycamore, walnut, and other 
trees, crown even lofty heights. Some of these 
far surpass the finest trees which on a former 
page were mentioned as offsprings of the pro¬ 
lific soil and stimulating climate of Ceylon. 
Cedars, one hundred and eighty feet high, and 
twenty-seven feet in circumference, measured 
at the height of a few feet from the ground, 
are common. The hemp is such as cannot be 
matched in the world. 

The country of Nepaul, on the north-east 
frontier of India proper, is worthy of being 
distinguished from all the independent states, 
or those partially dependent on the company. 
During the sepoy revolt of 1857-58, the 
ruler of Nepaul gave most efficient aid to 
the British, and, but for the unaccountable 
refusal of his offers of auxiliary forces on the 
part of the government of India, it is pro¬ 
bable that both Delhi and Oude would have 
been subjugated much sooner, and with much 
less cost of human life and destruction of 
property. 

Repaid was once a powerful empire, its 
rajah ruling over the vast range of territory 
bordering Hindoostan on the north and north¬ 
east. It has, by its conflicts with the British, 
been greatly reduced in dimensions and re¬ 
strained in power, yet it is still a noble 
state. It is separated from Thibet on the 
north by the Himalaya Mountains; and 
bounded on the south by the provinces of 
British India, known as Delhi, Oude, Bahar, 
and Bengal. The river Mitchee, on the east, 
flows between the British and Nepaulese 
territories; on the west the branch of the 
Goggra called Cali, separates the British por¬ 
tion of Gurwal—the Kumaon district—from 
Nepaul. In its greatest extent the country 



Chap. IX.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


191 


ranges between the twenty-seventh and 
thirty-first degrees of north latitude. In 
length it is under five hundred miles, and in 
breadth not much above one hundred. The 
country exhibits the form of a parallelogram, 
three sides of which are bounded by the 
British dominions, and Sikkim, under British 
protection, and the fourth is contiguous to 
the Himalayas and the Chinese empire. The 
mountains are covered with fine timber, pines 
of a quality similar to those of British Kumaon 
are to be met with in lofty forests; the mi- 
mosce, from which the catechu is made, is also 
abundant. The birds of these wooded heights 
are extremely numerous, parrots and paro¬ 
quets especially. These are purchased by 
bird-fanciers, who retail them in the lower 
provinces, from which they are dispersed to 
other lands. The country from its southern 
boundaries slopes up to a range of low hills; 
thence, after a very slight depression, the 
mountains rise in their lofty grandeur. The 
appearance of these vast elevated lands, 
covered in some cases with eternal snow, is 
sublime. Between the clustering, broken, 
and unequally abrupt acclivities, are culti¬ 
vated valleys, but seldom to any great ex¬ 
tent ; these valleys are situated at elevations 
above the plains of Bengal varying from 
three thousand to six thousand feet. From 
this circumstance Nepaul produces almost all 
the fruits of the tropics, and also those of the 
temperate zone. Some of the valleys teem 
luxuriantly with the pine-apple and the 
sugar-cane; others bear the cereal crops of 
England. The rattan and the bamboo are to 
be seen on the declivities which sldrt one 
warm valley, while the oak or pine en¬ 
counter the sterner climate of another. 
Peaches are abundant, but are spoiled by 
the periodical rains; and the orange grows to 
great perfection. Ginger and cardamom are 
produced in large quantities. 

Flocks of sheep pasture on all the hills: 
little attention is given to them; in obedience 
to their own instincts they seek the warmer 
valleys in winter, and in s umm er clamber the 
steep hills, and browse upon the young grass 
that covers them. Horses are brought from 
Thibet, also the shawl-goat, choury or bos- 
grunniens. From the lowlands buffaloes 
are brought, fattened in the mountains, 
and slaughtered for food; hogs also are 
brought from the low regions, although the 
country seems well suited for breeding both 
species of animals. The pig seems to thrive 
in all climates, but the Nepaulese, although 
they import it, and therefore must set a value 
upon it, seldom rear it. 

Two splendid species of birds frequent these 
cold regions—the memal (Meleagris satyr a), 


and the damphiya (PJiasianus impeyanus). 
There is also a bird to be met with in the 
loftier ranges, called the fire-eater, or chakoor 
(■Perdix rufa), which pecks at sparks of 
fire. 

The. mineral resources are considerable, 
consisting of lead, copper, zinc, and iron; 
gold to a small extent is found in the channels 
of the rivers. The copper and iron lie near 
the surface. Corundum and sulphur are 
also found in the mountains. 

“The valley of Nepaul” is well adapted 
for cultivation, and is the largest alluvial space 
within the Nepaul dominions. The hills 
which begirt it are elothed with common 
spruce, Weymouth pine, hornbeam, oak, and 
chestnut; the lower vegetation is luxuriant, 
hardy shrubs, resembling those of Europe, 
cover a large area. The flora of these hills, 
and the valley they surround, comprises the 
flowers of Hindoostan and of Europe—the 
former springing up in the rich vale, the 
latter on the mountain slopes. 

The scenery is rendered strikingly pictu¬ 
resque by the mountain courses of the rivers. 
These, generally rising in Thibet, wind their 
way through passes, which they thus render 
impracticable, and, as they dash from rock to 
rock, from one vast precipice to another, 
afford scenes of solemn grandeur. 

The valleys are inhabited by many tribes 
of distinct appearance, language, and habits. 
Those which are supposed to be aboriginal 
have a strongly marked Tartar physiognomy, 
or a resemblance to the Chinese. There are 
Hindoos in these regions, and have been from 
a remote antiquity, but they are regarded by 
the other races as intruders. The Hindoos 
of the mountain are called Parbutties. The 
Rajpoots are tolerably numerous, and are 
decided Brahminical devotees. 

The Goorkhas are the ascendant race; 
they are men of very low stature, seldom 
exceeding five feet. They are brave, no 
danger or difficulty deterring them; and with 
their short sword, or hatchet, which it more 
resembles, they will close upon the most 
gigantic enemies, and generally vanquish 
them with great slaughter. In their con¬ 
flicts with the British they were less success¬ 
ful, but the 50th regiment suffered severely 
from the hatchet, or heavy knife, cutting 
through the musket; and the dexterity of the 
Goorkhas in close quarters, united to their 
dauntless bravery, enabled them to inflict a 
heavy penalty upon that gallant and well 
disciplined corps. Brigaded with the same 
regiment afterwards in the Sikh campaigns, 
these men of the mountain fought side by 
side with our soldiers, dealing defeat and 
death upon the common enemy. In the 



192 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. IX. 


rebellion of 1857-8 these same warriors again 
appeared upon the theatre of battle as our allies, 
and drove the tall mutineers of the Bengal 
army before them, as their mountain torrents 
sweep the loose soil from the rock. 

Perhaps there is not a country in the 
world where religious dispute prevails more 
than in Nepaul. The Goorkhas generally 
administer the old Mohammedan argument of 
the sword, as the best way to cut short a con¬ 
troversy, although these warriors are not 
followers of the prophet, but generally of 
Brahma. There are the purest Brahmins 
in India to be found among the Nepaulese 
people, while others, in many cases, set 
Brahminical laws at defiance, and eat beef; 
Buddhists, who conform to the type of their 
religionists in Birmah, others to that preva¬ 
lent in Thibet, and some who differ from 
both. There are followers and persecutors of 
the Thibet Lamas; Mohammedans who con¬ 
sider the eating of pork a crime, at least as 
great as idolatry; Hindoos who regard eating 
beef as impure as Christianity; and herds of 
mountaineers who will risk life to steal either 
swine or kine for the gratification of their 
appetite for animal food. Some offer constant 
sacrifices of animals, others consider it sacri¬ 
legious to kill one; and a large sept or sect 
(it is difficult to say which it is) has a taste 
for carrion and diseased cattle. 

The morals of the people are very diverse— 
ceremonial purity being held by many as the 
surnmum bonum, philosophy being the chief 
consideration with others. A large section of 
the population live in desperate licentiousness, 
and are utterly enervated at an early age. 
Some of the humbler classes are polygamists, 
and polyandrism is not unknown. Generally 
male and female licentiousness prevail, and 
murders the most vindictive, the result of a 
revenge long kindled, are perpetrated even in 
the capital, by men of rank, on the ground of 
jealousy. The knife is carried for the chief 
purpose of avenging Avounded honour in this 
matter. Among all these conflicting passions, 
degrading superstitions, deeply cherished 
prejudices, and absurd religions, Christianity 
has no field. Efforts indeed have been made 
to penetrate the chaos of crimes and creeds 
Avhich make up the social and religious life 
of these benighted races, but as yet the efforts 
have not been commensurate with the object. 

The portions of the country or countries 
over which the Goorkha sceptre now sways, 
which attract most interest, are the two cele¬ 
brated valleys of Nepaul proper, commonly 
called Great and Little Nepaul. The larger 
valley, according to General Fitzpatrick, Avas 
once a lake, and in its centre Avere two islands, 
noAV hills in the centre of the vale. One of J 


these, of elegant form, is sacred to the Bud¬ 
dhists ; the other to the Brahmins, avIio believe 
that Siva and his Avife resided there, to Avhorn 
they have built temples. The river Gunduck, 
which flow's nearly around it, is esteemed by 
them to be so sacred, that they, and all the fol¬ 
lowers of their doctrines, desire to be buried 
AA'ith their feet laved by its current, and after- 
Avards their bodies burnt on its banks. By this 
means they hope in the metempsychosis to 
escape occupying a body inferior to that 
of man. 

Nepaul proper sends doAA'n to the loAver 
country elephants, ivory, rice, timber, hides, 
ginger, terra japonica, turmeric, w'ax, honey, 
pure resin of the pine, Avalnuts, oranges, long 
pepper, ghee, bark of the root of bastard cin¬ 
namon, also the dried leaves, large cardamoms, 
dammer, lamp oil, and cotton of the simul- 
tree. The productions of Bengal and the 
north-west proAdnces, and English manufac¬ 
tures, are taken in exchange—the balance, 
being very much in favour of Nepaul, 
is taken in silver: this is one channel of the 
drain for silver from Europe to the East. 

The towns of Nepaul proper are inconsi¬ 
derable, and destitute of commercial or archi¬ 
tectural pretensions. 

West of the territory especially designated 
Nepaul is the country of the T\venty-four 
Rajahs. The first in the enumeration is Goon- 
kha, Avhich is the original country of the 
Goorkha race, and of the reigning family. 
The town is situated on the top of a high hill, 
and it is said contains tw r o thousand houses, 
and the temple of Gorakhanath, the tutelary 
deity of the district, and of the reigning 
family of Nepaul. The Goorkhas themselves 
w r ere Magars, but derived the name they bear 
from the territory Avhich they made their 
home, and Avhich derived its designation from 
the name of the local god. The reigning 
family is Avorthy of the courage and spirit of- 
their race. The rajah is a man of integrity, 
intelligence, gentle manners, and resolute will. 
He visited England, studied the Iuavs, institu¬ 
tions, and manners of our country, is fond of 
everything British, and does all he can to 
introduce civilization into his rude but pic¬ 
turesque dominions. His palace is furnished 
AA'itli English furniture and Avorks of art; 
his dress is in the main European; and 
his manners and conversation those of a 
thorough gentleman. He is the faithful ally 
of the Honourable East India Company; and 
before his proffer of troops AA'as accepted in 
1857, he sheltered all the fugitives AA'ho could 
reach his territory, and treated them Avith the 
most delicate consideration. “ Equally free 
from assumed dignity, and flattery, his beha¬ 
viour, especially to the English ladies re- 



Chap. IX.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


193 


ceived at his court, was that of an accom¬ 
plished man and perfect English gentleman."* 

To the west of the river Rapty there is an 
extensive region called the Twenty-two Ra¬ 
jahs. There is nothing in their climate, con¬ 
formation, productions, or people, requiring 
separate notice. 

Sikkim is a protected territory situated 
between Nepaul and Bhotan. It has been an 
independent state from time immemorial, but 
its limits have undergone many mutations. Ac¬ 
cording to native authorities, its most ancient 
boundaries northward were a range of high¬ 
lands, which separated it from the Chinese 
dominions in Thibet. These hills were called 
Khaioa Karpola, or “ the mountains white 
with snow.” To the west, the Conki formed 
the limit until it reached the plain, where the 
country now “ one of the Twenty-two Rajahs,” 
the Morung (or Vijayapore Rajah) was in¬ 
cluded in ancient Sikkim. Its eastern boun¬ 
dary is Bhotan. Its present limits are com¬ 
pact and well defined, clearly distinguishing 
it from the dominions of Nepaul and Bhotan, 
and effectually separating those states from one 
another. This settlement was effected by the 
British government after the great Nepaulese 
war, and the policy was judicious, for the war¬ 
like Goorkhas having gained ascendancy, would 
soon have pushed their conquests through 
Bhotan and Assam, possibly through Birmah, 
or, forming a junction with that power, over¬ 
awed the British frontier. By the settlement of 
Sikkim under the rajah, he being under Bri¬ 
tish protection, the Goorkhas are shut up 
within bounds, so far as any progress east¬ 
ward is concerned. The East India Com¬ 
pany would have probably retained the terri¬ 
tory, but the people live in a country of diffi¬ 
cult access from the adjoining British province, 
and it would require a long time to tame 
them down to the observance of law and 
order, such as is necessary in a British pro¬ 
vince. The rajah, towards whom they turn 
with national loyalty, is more likely to pre¬ 
serve order under the stipidations of the pro¬ 
tective treaty. 

The country resembles that of Nepaul, to 
which it is contiguous; the climate is also 
similar, although perhaps hotter, and less 
healthy. It contains much fine scenery, and 
many most salubrious situations. About half 
the population profess the religion of the Thi- 
betian Lamas, a species of Buddhism, the deity 
being incarnate in the successive Lamas. The 
Lamas hold the supreme spiritual power in 
Thibet, and over the Buddhists of neighbour¬ 
ing countries who submit to their rule: the 
temporal authority in the Thibetian territory 

* Letter of a lady, a fugitive from tlie upper provinces 
of Bengal, during the mutiny. 

VOL. 1. 


is wielded by the Chinese emperor. The 
moiety of the Sikkimites who acknowledge 
the grand Lamas are enervated by their 
debasing superstitions; the others consist 
of numerous tribes—brave, hardy, rude, abo¬ 
riginal races. These men eat kine or pork, 
or anything else which is detested either by 
Buddhists or Brahmins, and they will drink 
alcohol eagerly : it is alleged, too, that some of 
them drink with passionate gusto the blood of' 
animals slain for their sacrifices. Sikkim was 
long a battle-field for ascendancy by its own 
people, and those of surrounding countries, 
the chief aggressors being the restless little 
Goorkhas, whose perseverance against all 
odds and obstacles was usually rewarded by 
victory. The rajah has been constant to his 
fealty, and the British government to its pro¬ 
tection, and both have been benefited. The 
Chinese regard the increasing influence of the 
East India Company along the frontier of 
Thibet with great uneasiness, and they have 
used every furtive means to which they could 
resort to detach the Goorklia and Sikkim 
rajahs from their alliance, but in vain. 
Menaces also have been tried for this purpose, 
but without accomplishing it, although not 
without inspiring with the most abject terror 
his Sikkim majesty, and causing serious mis¬ 
giving as to the result among the Goorkhas, 
notwithstanding all their bravery: such is the 
prestige of the “ brother of the sun,” and 
monarch of “ the celestial empire,” along the 
frontier states, which are also the boundary 
states of our Indian empire. 

Bhotan is an extensive region lying east¬ 
ward of Sikkim, and separated from it by the 
eastern branch of the Teesta River. Its eastern 
limit is the apex of an angle, where the British 
province of Assam and the Chinese region of 
Thibet meet with it. The last-named country 
ranges along its northern line, upon the crests 
of the Himalayas, and to the south it has 
Berar and Assam. The Hindoos apply the 
term Bhote to both sides of the Himalayas, 
extending from Cashmere to China, a vast area 
of country, but the name Bhotan is applied 
by Europeans only to the country above de¬ 
fined. The Bhotans constitute a tribe which 
is very extended over the whole Himalaya 
range, and the territory now- noticed may be 
considered as their chief locality. The lower 
portions, adjoining the Bengal frontier, are 
choked with vegetation, marshy land, and 
constantly-decomposing matter, rendering the 
whole plain pestiferous. The northern por¬ 
tions are mountainous, in some places wild 
and rocky, but in most the mountains are 
green to their peaks, and towers and hamlets 
exist on the slopes in the midst of blooming- 
gardens and orchards. Forests of excellent 

c c 




194 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chai\ IX. 


timber shelter elephants and other fine ani¬ 
mals, as well as birds of various plumage. 
Like Nepaul, the land has many climates— 
one might almost say every climate, from the 
sternest winter to the fervour of the tropics. 
Apples, pears, peaches, apricots, strawberries, 
raspberries, and blackberries, are indigenous. 
The vegetables of England are excellent: 
the turnip, it is said, being the finest in the 
world. Tea is as common in Bhotan as in 
China, but it is boiled with flour, salt, and 
other ingredients. The horses are particu¬ 
larly fine and spirited. Monkeys being saered, 
as among the Hindoos, they are unmolested 
by the people, and scream and chatter in 
every direction; they are much finer, and in 
greater variety, than in any other part of 
India, continental or insular. 

From the hills of Bhotan caravans descend 
to Rungpore, conveying tea and cows’ tails 
from Thibet, Chinese silks, tea, paper, and 
limes, and their own products—such as bees¬ 
wax, walnuts, oranges, ivory, musk, gold- 
dust, and silver (in ingots). The Deb Rajah, as 
the monarch is called, is himself the merchant, 
and imports to his dominions indigo from the 
plains, cloves, nutmegs, incense, sandal-wood, 
red sandal-wood, hides, cloth, coral, and Eng¬ 
lish manufactures of various kinds. The total 
yalue of this commerce is not great. 

The people are of two very different races, 
the majority being feeble and emasculated, 
their whole minds engrossed in superstition; 
the other a bold athletic race, with Chinese 
features, but better limbed than that race. 
They are all much subject to glandular swell¬ 
ings in the neck, and nearly destitute of hair 
about the face, having scarcely any eyelash 
or eyebrow, no beard, and seldom any whis¬ 
kers. Like the Sikkim people, they were long 
accustomed to fight with the bow and poisoned 
arrow, nor are these weapons even yet aban¬ 
doned, although in Nepaul good European 
arms are alone employed for military pur¬ 
poses. The women are obliged to work in 
the fields, and are treated harshly. In reli¬ 
gion the Bhotans are Buddhists, and reject 
caste totally. 

The policy of the court is encroaching and 
artful, and the British territory has been much 
intruded upon. It has always been difficult 
to induce the native sovereigns to remain 
faithful to treaties in this respect, even when 
their fidelity as allies in war has been unques¬ 
tionable. They prefer an undefined or irre¬ 
gularly-marked boundary, the passion for 
disputes about land being prevalent all over 
India, and apparently inseparable from the 
existence of native landholders and sove¬ 
reigns. The Deb Rajah is the temporal 
sovereign of the country, which he but par¬ 


tially rules; there is also a spiritual rajah, 
and often civil war alone decides their respec¬ 
tive privileges, and relative authority. Of 
the Chinese emperor both the temporal and 
spiritual rajah stand in great awe. 

The towns in this vast region are unim¬ 
portant, and the capital is not much superior 
to the others. 

There are numerous small states adjacent 
to Assam, which are more or less subject to, 
or under the protection of, the British, which 
only merit a passing notice. The possessions, 
of the Begum Rajah, situated on both sides of' 
the Brahmapootra, are among these. The 
boundaries are ill defined, the people wild, 
and the land wretchedly cultivated. Some 
of these estates are beautiful, and the land 
naturally fertile, especially in the lower dis¬ 
tricts, which are subject to inundations. 
Excellent rice is produced in large quan¬ 
tities. It is also prolific in mustard-seed, 
sugar-cane, and tobacco. The British have 
assumed a nominal sovereignty over the 
greater part of this territory. 

The Dophlas, the Garrows, and other inde¬ 
pendent or quasi-independent tribes, inhabit 
neighbouring districts; they seem to be abori¬ 
ginal races, and are fierce and predatory in 
character. 

In the border territories of India, from 
the northern limits of Beloochistan to the 
point where Assam touches the confines of 
Bhotan, Birmah, and Thibet, the climate is 
superior to the lower provinces; but the oppo¬ 
sition to the administration of government and 
the collecting of revenue is very great, arising 
from the wild, bold character of the people of 
these border realms, the insatiable desire of 
territory which animates their chiefs, and the 
perpetual encroachments upon the territory of 
the company made by petty zemindars, indi¬ 
vidual intruders, or superior chiefs. The 
general impression in England is, that the 
company maintains a system of encroachment 
upon contiguous territory, whereas they per¬ 
petually stand on the defensive against the 
oriental spirit of aggrandisement, which is 
often adventured even where defeat and 
penalty are almost sure to follow. 

The relations of the Indian government to 
the native states have, of late years, improved. 
Generally it was difficult to Becure the execu¬ 
tion of any treaties, so little were the rulers 
of these states bound by ideas of international 
,law. Treaties were usually regarded simply 
as media of escaping preceding difficulties 
and perils, and no longer to be kept than 
convenience dictated. Of late the imperative 
obligation of treaties has been more generally, 
and at the same time more freely, recognised 
by the rulers of the various countries within 



Chap. IX.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


195 


tlie peninsula, and on its borders, which pos¬ 
sess an independent status. The agents of 
the Honourable East India Company at the 
courts of these sovereigns have been, for the 
most part, competent men, selected for their 
ability and trustworthiness, and they have 
used their moral influence and intellectual 
resources to improve the administration of 
these states. Most of these petty kingdoms, 
when forming alliance with the government 
of Calcutta, were in a condition of anarchy, or 
crushed by the tyranny of their princes, or 
courtiers administering government in their 
name. “ Those among the Mahratta states 
which had any considerable military strength 
made annual expeditions, called mooluch- 
gheery circuits, for the purpose of conquering 
or devastating the possessions of their weaker 
neighbours; and hordes of undisciplined ad¬ 
venturers, known by the name of Pindarries, 
ranged with fire and sword from one end to 
the other of the part of India which was 
under native rule, occasionally invading and 
ravaging even the British possessions. All 
this is at an end. The native states are as 
safe from one another, and from invaders and 
plunderers from without, as the British domi¬ 
nions. The princes and chiefs are bound by 
treaties to refer to our arbitration all their 
differences; and experience has given them 
the fullest reliance on our impartiality and 
justice. Boundary disputes between villages 
of different states, and complaints from the 
subjects of one against another, are adjudi¬ 
cated either by a British officer, or by courts 
of vakeels, composed of representatives of the 
neighbouring chiefs, pi’esided over by a Bri¬ 
tish functionary.” * 

In Gujerat (or Guzerat), where a consider¬ 
able number of petty chiefs hold the reins of 
power, too weak to control their people, and 
too ignorant and uncivilised to enter into 
suitable arrangements with one another, cri¬ 
minal courts have been instituted, consisting 
of a British diplomatic officer, and assessors 
selected from the representatives of the dif¬ 
ferent chiefs. By these means turbulence 
has been repressed, and petty raids for rob¬ 
bery and revenge have been promptly pun¬ 
ished. One peculiarity of these tribunals 
has been, that they have nearly suppressed 
all the crimes which arose out of a generally 
disturbed state of society; and in dealing 
with offences which originated in real or 
supposed grievances, they make due allow¬ 
ance for provocation, and redress the wrongs 
even of those whom they are bound to punish 
for seeking justice by unlawful means. 

The barbarous practices which have been 

* Memorandum of Indian Improvements, by the Court 
of Directors. 


to a great degree, or altogether, suppressed 
in our own territories, such as infanticide, 
Thuggee, Suttee, Dacoitee, &c.,have, through 
the influence of the British residents at the 
various courts, been either mitigated, re¬ 
strained, or altogether abolished. 

No European could conceive the barbarous 
state of financial management in all the native 
states. The princes grew rich by the impo¬ 
verishment of the people; their persons, 
palaces, idols, temples, thrones, sceptres, arms, 
and other instruments of war or state, glit¬ 
tered with precious stones and the precious 
metals; while the people were ground down 
to the dust beneath extortion and oppression. 
The fiscal systems of these states have been 
modified or regenerated by the influence and 
talent of the British residents. At the same 
time, the personal extravagance of the princes 
has become, through the same influences, 
comparatively unfashionable. Formerly, the 
elephant of a Hindoo rajah was richly capa¬ 
risoned, the trappings being decorated with 
gold and jewels: this is not now common, 
and is rather to be met with among the 
chiefs of the smaller and less potent states, 
where love of barbaric display has not been 
subdued by the chastening effects of civi¬ 
lization. ^ 

One of the most fertile sources of revolution 
and sanguinary anarchy in the native states, 
as well as of difference between them and the 
company, was the condition in which succes¬ 
sion to the throne was frequently left by the 
decease of the monarch. It can hardly fail 
to have struck persons, even only superficially 
acquainted with Indian affairs, how frequently 
the rightful sovereign has been left in a 
minority, and how seldom that has been the 
case without intrigue having been set on foot 
to displace the minor by some bold and 
unprincipled chief or kinsman. This source 
of disorder has been lessened by the care and 
precaution of the company. The British 
residents have generally superintended the 
education of the minor, and trained him in 
habits of good government; while their influ¬ 
ence has been exercised upon the states to 
appoint capable ministers, to reform abuses, 
and restore the country in an improved con¬ 
dition to the young chiefs, who, having been 
in the meantime for the most part educated 
in European knowledge, and initiated into 
public business under the eye of a British 
officer, are often grateful for the care taken 
of their interest, and continue, after the 
accession to power, the improved systems 
commenced during their minority. The pre¬ 
sent Scindiah and Holkar, and the Bao of 
Cutch, as well as many others, may be cited 
as instances. One native rider, the late 




196 


HISTORY OP THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. IX. 


Nawab of Rampore, had actually been a 
deputy-collector in the service of the British 
government. Another, the Rao of Ulwur, on 
his accession, invited some of our native 
functionaries to conduct his administration, 
and reform it after the English model. The 
Rajpoot states, formerly almost in a condition 
of chronic anarchy, have been rendered peace¬ 
ful and prosperous, by judicious mediation 
between the princes and their feudatories, 
and judicious guidance of both, through 
advice and influence.* 

Writers who treat of the independent ter¬ 
ritories of India usually overlook the tribes 
which own no master, and live in savage 
wildness in the fastnesses of the ghauts or the 
Himalayas. Sometimes these are called Bri¬ 
tish subjects, at other times they are regarded 
as the subjects of some of the rajahs within 
the alleged boundaries of whose territories 
the jungles, marshes, or rocky elevations where 
they make their retreat are nominally repre¬ 
sented to be. 

“ There are numerous hill tribes in various 
parts of India, known under the names of 
Bheels, Coolies, Goands, Mhairs, Meenas, 
Mhangs, Ramoosees, and others, who are 
believed to have been the aboriginal popula¬ 
tion of the country, driven from the plains 
by the invasion of the Hindoos. These people 
had been treated like wild beasts by the native 
governments, and, by a natural consequence, 
had become the scourge of the country. 
Whenever the government was weak, they 
destroyed all security in the neighbouring 
plains by their depredations, and had uni¬ 
versally acquired the character of irreclaim¬ 
able robbers. 

*■ The first person who is known to have tried 
the effect of justice and conciliation on any of' 
these tribes was Mr. Cleveland, an officer high 
in the civil service of the company in the latter 
part of the last century. The scene of his 
benevolent exertions was the Bhaugulpore 
Hills, in the north-east of Bengal; and the 
feelings which he left behind among the rude 
people of the district were such, that they 
long continued to pay religious honours to 
his tomb. The example thus set has been 
largely followed in the present generation. 
One of the first signal instances of success was 
in the case of the Mhairs, who inhabit a hill 
district near Ajmeer. Colonel Hall, now on 
the company’s retired list, originated the 
movement, and it was worthily carried on by 
Colonel Dixon, recently deceased. In Western 
India the honour of the initiative belongs 
to Mr. J. P. Willoughby, then a very young 
officer, who by similar means established 
peace and order among the Bheels of Raj- 
* Statement of the East India Company. 


peepla, a wild district of Gujerat. The next 
instance was that of the Bheels of the Adjuntee 
range, in Southern Candeish, through the 
agency chiefly of Colonel Ovans, and of the 
present Sir James Outram; and the measures 
which proved successful with these Bheels 
were successively extended to many similar 
tribes in different parts of Central India. 
Another example is that of the Khoonds, in 
Orissa, among whom a policy of the same 
general character was carried into practice 
by Major Macpherson. This tribe has been 
induced to abolish human sacrifices. 

“The mode in which these objects were 
accomplished was in all cases fundamentally 
the same. They were effected by the admir¬ 
able power of individual character. Into 
fastnesses, through which bodies even of dis¬ 
ciplined troops had vainly endeavoured to 
force their way, these officers penetrated, in 
some cases almost unattended. They trusted 
themselves to the people. By their courage 
and frankness they gained their confidence. 
They made them understand that they were 
not considered as wild animals to be hunted 
down; that nothing but their good was in¬ 
tended ; and the object which had for years 
been vainly sought by force was accomplished 
by explanation and persuasion. The robber 
tribes were induced to settle as peaceful cul¬ 
tivators. Lands were assigned to them, tools 
supplied, and money advanced, for cultivation. 
In Mhairwarra the government also con¬ 
structed important works of irrigation. The 
more daring spirits were formed into irregular 
corps, under British officers, and employed to 
preserve the peace of the districts of which 
they had once been the principal disturbers. 
In no single instance has this policy failed. 
The agricultural colonies composed of these 
people have all prospered, and the districts 
which they formerly devastated have become, 
and remained, among the most free from crime 
to be found in India. In the late disturbances 
not one of the corps composed of these people 
is known to have mutinied. The Mhairwarra 
battalion has not only remained faithful, but 
is, in the present crisis, a valuable part of our 
local military strength, and there has been no 
disturbance whatever in that district. Among 
the Bheels of Candeish there has been a 
rising, which, by showing that the predatory 
spirit is not yet thoroughly extinct, enhances 
the merit of the system of measures by which, 
for nearly a quarter of a century, it has been 
kept dormant. But the corps foi’med from 
among these very people by Sir James Out¬ 
ram has done useful service to government in 
the present emergency. 

“ The last great example of the success of 
this policy was given by Colonel John Jacob 




Chap. IX.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


197 


in Scinde, and only differs from the others 
because the tribes with whom he had to do 
were not oppressed aborigines, but the proud 
and warlike mountaineers of the Affghan and 
Beloochee frontier. The success has been 
among the most striking yet experienced. 
For some time after the conquest, of Scinde 
the frontier forays of these tribes kept the 
country in a perpetual state of disturbance. 
The attempts to retaliate on them in their 
hills had been failures, sometimes almost dis¬ 
asters, but had laid the foundation of that 
knowledge of our power which enabled sub¬ 
sequent conciliatory measures to have their 
full effect. Colonel Jacob applied to these 
people the principles of Mhairwarra and Can- 
deish. He settled on land those who were 
willing to cultivate, and organised from 
among the remainder a local military police. 
The effect is, that in the frontier districts, 
what was lately a desert, is now in great part 
a thriving agricultural country, yielding a 
rapidly increasing revenue. For some years 
there has been scarcely a crime of magnitude 
on the entire Scinde frontier; and the corps 
which was raised partly from the former de¬ 
vastators of the country is the celebrated 
Jacob’s Horse.” * 

Those who are desirous to give the govern¬ 
ment credit for the wise and bold conduct of 
its officers, may be surprised by learning 
that General Jacob professes to have hewed 
out a path for himself, without any instruction 
from the Indian authorities, when he adopted 
the eminently successful course commended 
in the company’s memorial. Whatever may 
be thought of such pretensions, there can be 
no doubt that the general was enabled to 
effect his purposes chiefly by the impartial 
and daring spirit of justice with which he set 
at defiance all fanatical demonstrations and 
claims for sectarian license. There is an 
illustration of this in the following regimental 
orders issued by him, when Major Jacob, at 
Jacobabad, on the 5th of October, 1854:— 

The camp at Jacobabad has been for the last week the 
scene of wild disorder, such as is in the highest degree 
disgraceful to good soldiers. A shameful uproar has been 
going on day and night, under pretence of religious cere¬ 
monies. The commanding officer has nothing to do with 
religious ceremouies. All men may worship God as they 
please, and believe as they choose in matters of religion, 
but no men have a right to annoy their neighbours or to 
neglect their duty on pretence of serving God. 

The officers and men of the Scinde Irregular Horse 
have the name of, and are supposed to be, excellent 
soldiers, and not mad fakeers. They are placed at the 
most advanced and most honourable post in all the Bom¬ 
bay presidency ; the commanding officer believes that they 
are in every way worthy of this honour, and he would be 
sorry if under his command they ever became unworthy 
of their high position. 

* Memorial of the Honourable East India Company. 


The commanding officer feels it to be the greatest 
honour to command such soldiers, but that it would be a 
disgrace to be at the head of a body of mad and disorderly 
fakeers and drummers. He therefore now informs the 
Scinde Irregular Horse that in future no noisy proces¬ 
sions nor any disorderly displays whatever, under pre¬ 
tence of religion or of anything else, shall ever be allowed 
in, or in the neighbourhood of, and camps of the Scinde 
Irregular Horse. 

This order is to be read on the first of every month 
until further orders, and is to be hung up in the bazaar 
in the town of Jacobabad and at the Cutcherry. 

By order, 

W. L. Briggs, 

Lieutenant , Adjutant, 2nd regiment S. I. II. 

The editor of an Indian journal, remarking 
upon this document, observes :—“ When this 
order was issued there were, we are told, 
some ten thousand bigoted Mussulmen in the 
camp and town of Jacobabad, and the 
number, it is believed, has since increased. 
Nevertheless, the prohibition has been most 
strictly enforced, and, with our faith in the 
reason of men in the mass when reason¬ 
ably appealed to, we are not surprised 
to learn that its enforcement has been sub¬ 
mitted to without a murmur. Public opinion 
was with Major Jacob in this instance, as it 
will always be with those who lay down 
sound principles, and act upon them con¬ 
sistently and impartially.” * 

What Major Jacob effected by the force of’ 
his character, his practical common sense in 
worldly matters, and his military judgment 
and genius, he himself is eager to attribute to 
his correct views in reference to the applic¬ 
ability of Christianity to the reformation of 
wild tribes; and the general has written a 
very silly book to show this, entitled the 
Progress of Being in the Universe . The 
book and the title do not harmonise; the 
writer seems to think that he has new and 
original ideas of great value on ethics and 
the moral nature of man. Some of these 
views are simply nonsense, others exploded 
fallacies, as the merest tyro in moral phi¬ 
losophy and theology must know; and 
the only good notions which the general 
propounds as the result of his own great 
thinking power, or of that of other men who 
have been neglected, but the value of whose 
opinions he had the sagacity to discover, are 
principles which they or he somehow derived 
from revelation. “ I arrive at the conclusion,” 
says the sapient general, “ that the Chris¬ 
tianity of the modern churches is only slightly 
altered from paganism!” How paganism con¬ 
tained Christianity the general does not say; 
nor does he show in what particulars “ the 
modern churches” altered so slightly the old 
Christianity of paganism; nor does he tell us 
how it is, or wherein the modern churches are 
* Bombay Gazette. 





198 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chai>. IX. 


so especially liable to the imputation; the only 
thing plain is that Jacob of the Scinde Horse, 
whatever his courage, practical aptitudes, 
or military capacity, is very ignorant of Chris¬ 
tianity, is not at all conversant with logic, or 
with ethical and theological questions on which 
he is so dogmatical, and that he possesses a 
ready capacity for writing nonsense, which he 
persuades himself is philosophy. When his 
productions are sufficiently clear to be under¬ 
stood, it is obvious that with a pen in his 
hand he is as absurd, incompetent, and im¬ 
practicable, as with his sword he is efficient, 
and in his own natural character frank, just, 
and honest. It is difficult to say what par¬ 
ticular duties in connection with religion and 
religious education the government of India 
may devolve upon General Jacob in addition 
to border pacification and the drilling of the 
Scinde irregular cavalry, but it is easy for the 
Christian and Protestant public of England 
to judge of his fitness for such a trust by the 
following outburst of infidelity, which the 
writer evidently believed to be very eloquent 
and very learned, as to the philosophy and 
failure of the Reformation :— 

“ The Protestants, however, knew and 
know nothing of esoteric religion; in fact, 
they knew not in reality what they assailed 
or protested against. They fought against 
outward forms and shadows only; they held 
by the letter of the book as then received; 
and, being therefore without that power of 
adjustment which the Church of Rome still 
retains, they are now unable to accommodate 
their doctrines to the advancing common 
sense and reason of mankind, and still less to 
improving moral powers. The growing in¬ 
telligence of even the vulgar crowd must 
therefore, ere long, refuse to accept these 
doctrines as divine. Before a really divine 
revelation—before that glorious light of truth 
which the unfolding of natural law throughout 
the whole and every particle of the universe 
is gradually bringing on man’s mind—the 
mysteries of the churches appear foolish as 
nursery tales; while the intelligent being 
who is conscious of his ascent towards the 
highest, who feels the calm but unspeakable 
joy of real moral growth, must spurn with 
contempt that moral code which pretends to 
influence him by hopes and fears. He is 
and is eternally—he cares not for having.” * 
According to the general, there is no 
really divine revelation, but “ the unfolding 
of natural law throughout the whole and 
every particle of the universe;” and it is from 
that revelation, and what he ludicrously calls 
“ moral growth,” that he gathers his views of 
the errors of the Christian religions. On the 
* Letters to a Lady. By John Jacob. 


whole, the general may, when too old for the- 
army, make an excellent Buddhist priest; 
and the sooner when that time arrives the 
company pensions him off, and sends him to 
Kandy, or makes a present of him to “the 
white elephant,” the better for Scinde, for 
the character of the company which now 
employs him as a civil agent, and for the 
young officers who, imperfectly read in reli¬ 
gion, are brought under the pernicious in¬ 
fluence of his pamphlets and his opinions. 
The company has, so far, formed a more cor¬ 
rect estimate of the causes of General Jacob’s 
success in quieting the Affghan and Beloochee 
frontiers, than the general himself has done. 
What he attributes to his philosophy, they 
attribute to his dutiful execution of their 
policy: “ he settled on land those who were 
willing to cultivate, and organized from 
among the remainder a local military police.’* 
Instead of originating something wonderful, 
for which he was indebted to his philosophical 
materialism, he has only performed what he 
was bid, and, as the company declares, 
“applied to these people the principles of 
Mhairwarra and Candeish.” Yet notwith¬ 
standing this public testimony, the general 
pretends that all the good effects referred 
to arose from his urging upon the moun¬ 
tain men the principle of “ moral growth.” 
Topsy, in the memorable novel of Mrs. Stowe, 
seems to have been of the same philosophical 
school as the general—she “ growed.” It is of 
importance thus to notice the political and 
ethical quackery of General Jacob, because 
in India so much depends upon the personal 
opinions and conduct of the administrators of 1 
the company’s government, especially in those 
territories most imperfectly subjected to Bri¬ 
tish law. The gross inconsistencies of the 
commissioners of the Punjaub, where religious 
questions arose, were shown upon a previous 
page; and it is right that the public who 
read this History, should have a key to any 
anomalies of this nature that may arise upon 
the Scinde frontier, in connection with the 
commonplace but affectedly original infidelity 
of an officer whose military and administrative 
talents have won for him the position which 
he there occupies. 

Some of the native states are on the coast: 
these, as well as contiguous maritime coun¬ 
tries, were receptacles of pirates; but this 
condition of things has been brought to an 
end, partly by the negotiations of the com¬ 
pany’s residents and agents, and partly by 
the active operations of the Bombay marine. 

“ The piracies which formerly made the navi¬ 
gation of the Arabian seas unsafe for com¬ 
merce, have been so effectually suppressed by 
the East India Company’s cruisers, that there 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


199 


Chap. X.] 

is now hardly any part of the world in which 
trading vessels are more secure against depre¬ 
dation. The formerly piratical tribes have 
been bound by engagements to abstain not 
only from piracy, but from maritime war, 
which affords opportunities and pretexts for 
piracy; and, for the first time probably in 
history, a perpetual peace, guaranteed by 
treaties and enforced by superior naval 


strength, reigns in the Persian Gulf.” The 
establishment of an English settlement at 
Aden, commanding the entrance to the 
Red Sea, has also much conduced to the 
impunity of merchant shipping in those gulfs 
and seas to the westward of India, as the 
establishments of the straits’ settlements have 
assisted to protect the commerce of the Bay 
of Bengal, and the trade with China. 


CHAPTER X. 

MARITIME SETTLEMENTS THE EASTERN STRAITS—BORNEO—ADEN. 


What may be called the British maritime 
settlements in the East are important. On 
page 27 those in the Eastern Straits are 
named Penang, Province Wellesley, Singa¬ 
pore, and Malacca. The probable area and 
population were then also given. 

The Island of Penang, officially called the 
Prince of Wales’s Island, off the west coast of 
Malaya, was acquired by the East India 
Company in 1785; and the small province of 
Wellesley, on the mainland, w T as obtained 
in 1800. The island derives its name from 
the magnificent betel-nut palm {Penang). 
Georgeton is the capital. Arrowsmith, in 
a brief paragraph, expresses all that is neces¬ 
sary to notice here of this maritime possession 
of the company:—“The strait between the 
peninsula of Malaya and the isle of Sumatra 
is known by the name of the Strait of Ma¬ 
lacca. In it, about midway down the coast 
of the peninsula, and at a distance of two 
miles from it, is Pulo-Penang, or Prince of 
Wales’s Island, as it is also called. This 
island belongs to the British, having been 
given by the King of Quedah, as a marriage 
portion with his daughter, to the captain of a 
British merchant ship, in 1785; it was ac¬ 
cordingly taken possession of during the fol¬ 
lowing year, in the name of his majesty, and 
for the use of the East India Company; who, 
finding it a convenient situation for the pur¬ 
poses of commerce, and a place of rising 
importance, have constituted it into a separate 
government, subordinate only to the governor- 
general of India. At the commencement of 
the present century, the King of Quedah ceded 
to the British a tract of country, on the oppo¬ 
site coast of the peninsula, eighteen miles in 
length and three in breadth, in consideration 
of an annual tribute, which still continues to 
be paid to him. Pulo-Penang is a flourishing 
little settlement, and continues to increase 
both in population and utility, though it has 
been latterly eclipsed by Singapore.” 

Of the settlement of Malacca the same 


writer gives the following brief description, 
also sufficient for our purpose: — “Lower 
down the strait lies the town of Malacca 
itself, the capital of the whole peninsula, 
situated upon the coast, about one hundred 
miles from its southernmost point. . It first 
fell into the hands of the Portuguese, from 
whom it was taken by the Dutch, and from 
the latter again by the British. It was for¬ 
merly a place of some strength and conse¬ 
quence, but as the formation of our settlement 
at Pulo-Penang rendered it of little or no use 
as a place of trade, the garrison and stores 
were mostly withdrawn, the fortifications 
nearly razed, and the whole place dismantled. 
Since that time its importance has gradually 
been diminishing, though it is still a useful post 
as a guard against the piracies of the Malays, 
and the jealous intrusions of the Dutch.” 

The strip of country connected with this 
city is not more extensive than a large 
English county. To the Christian world the 
place is particulai’ly interesting, as the seat of 
the celebrated Chinese college, founded under 
the auspices of the London Missionary Society 
in 1818, by Drs. Morrison and Milne. To 
the friends of Eastern enlightenment and 
civilization, and more especially those whose 
benevolent washes in connection wdth such 
matters extend to China, the objects of the 
college must be regarded wdth pleasure, as it 
was founded for the cultivation of European 
and Chinese literature. It was at that place 
the work of translating the Scriptures into 
Chinese was undertaken by the tw 7 o inde¬ 
fatigable men above named—a work which 
was afterwards brought to greater perfection 
by Dr. Medhurst, and others, under the 
united patronage of the London Missionary 
and Bible Societies. 

The Island of Singapore was first the 
locality of a British settlement in 1818, but 
the whole island was ceded to them by the 
sultan in 1824. The natives call it Ugang 
Launa, or the Land’s End. The town of 





200 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. X. 


Singapore, which gives its name to the island, 
derives its name from the Malay term Singa- 
poora, the City of the Lion. The work 
on geography used at King’s College, thus 
describes it:— 

“ Singapore is situated at the southern ex¬ 
tremity of the Malay peninsula, on a small 
island of the same name, and has given name 
to the Straits of Singapore, which are formed 
by a cluster of innumerable little islands, 
vary much in their shapes, and indented on 
all sides by little bays and sandy coves. Here 
the China Sea, which connects the Indian and 
Pacific Oceans, commences, being bounded on 
the west and north by the mainland of Asia, 
and on the east and south by Formosa, the 
Philippine Islands, Palawan, Borneo, Banka, 
&c. The town of Singapore is said to have 
been founded by adventurers, who originally 
emigrated from the Island of Sumatra, but it 
possessed little consequence till it fell into the 
hands of the British, to whom the sultan ceded 
it, as well as the neighbouring islets and dis¬ 
tricts for four leagues round it. It derives all its 
importance from its central situation between 
India and China; and touching upon the 
southernmost point in the whole continent of 
Asia, it becomes, as it were, the last connect¬ 
ing link between the mainland and that ex¬ 
tensive archipelago of large and productive 
islands which lies off this extremity of the 
old world. It has no native productions of 
it3 own to export, and must therefore be 
looked upon merely as a depot for the con ¬ 
signment and sale of merchandise. But the 
increase of its population, and its transit of 
goods, during the last five years, are without 
example in the annals of history, and are 
owing, no doubt, to the superior regulations 
of the British traders, and the advantages 
they hold out to the natives of the surround¬ 
ing countries, when compared with the well- 
known habits and policy of the Dutch, as well 
as to the facility which it has afforded our 
own merchants for the exercise of their inge- 
nuity in escaping from the fetters of prejudice 
and monopoly. Its population amounts to 
nearly sixty thousand souls, and is composed 
of British, Dutch, Portuguese, Americans, 
Malays, Hindoos, Arabs, Parsees, Birmese, 
Siamese, Chinese, Javanese, and colonists 
from many of the great islands in the neigh¬ 
bourhood.” 

A merchant who sailed thither from Batavia 
thus describes the latter portion of the voyage : 
—“ We arrived at Minto (named, I suppose, 
after the British governor-general) at night, 
and early in the morning steamed for Rhio, 
and then we have no more stopping-places 
till we arrive at Singapore. Banka is notice¬ 
able only for its tin mines; about four thou¬ 


sand tons are annually shipped from Minto, 
and if modern machinery were introduced 
larger quantities could be procured. The ore 
is found near the surface, and is said to be 
the finest known. There are only twenty- 
five European residents. The mines are 
worked by Chinese coolies, who are brought 
down for sale—a damnable species of slave- 
trade peculiar to these nations ! The Straits 
of Banka are about one hundred miles long, 
and in one place only seven wide, which gives 
us a fine view of the long coast of Sumatra. 
In some places the land is very low, and you 
cannot even find Horsburgh’s tree; and then 
you have a volcanic range of mountain 
scenery, with foliage, from base to summit a 
beautiful green.” 

The harbour of Singapore is exceedingly 
picturesque; it is formed like a horse-shoe. 
The appearance of the city, the tropical 
foliage around it, and the highlands beyond, 
is pleasing. The “Kling” boatmen, after a 
contest for possession of the passenger, which is 
conducted with all the wild tones and gesticula¬ 
tions of savages, convey him safely ashore, and 
place him on a gurry, a vehicle drawn by a 
very rough horse; the driver, having a rope 
round the brute’s head, flogs it with the other 
end, all the while running along beside it, 
until one of the hotels is reached, which are 
described by travellers as very large, very 
expensive, prettily situated, and very deficient 
in good cooks. 

The island is about sixty miles in circum¬ 
ference, and is rapidly increasing in popula¬ 
tion. The scenery is, for so small a compass, 
diversified, and the soil is clothed with the 
luxuriance and beauty of the tropics. 

Men of all nations that have any commerce 
touch at this port. The result of the mixed 
popidation, and the extensive foreign resort, 
is that a strange Babel of tongues is per¬ 
petually heard in the streets of the town and 
in the marts of commerce. It has been said 
that seventeen different languages and fifteen 
dialects may be heard in the city of Singa¬ 
pore every day ! The town itself is healthily 
and pleasantly situated, and the country in 
its immediate vicinity is verdant with nutmeg 
and spice trees. It is undulated and well 
irrigated with natural streams and canals, 
formed to subserve the purposes of commerce. 
The fences of bamboo and rattan particularly 
strike strangers ; they are nowhere in the East 
so fine or so well tended. 

The European population does not exceed 
three hundred; these are nearly all British, a 
few* Dutch being the exception. The half- 
castes are very numerous, many of 'whom 
come from Malacca; they are, as in Ceylon, 
Bombay, and elsewhere in the East, darker 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


201 


CnAr. X.] 

than the natives, and physically inferior. In 
Singapore and Malacca they are, however, 
generally superior intellectually to the un- 
mixed native races. Half the population is 
Chinese: they hate Europeans, and are 
ready, if a favourable opportunity offered, or 
what they thought one, to rise and massacre 
the whole European population. This is the 
more remarkable, as they are treated with 
great kindness, have justice fairly administered 
to them, are free to leave the island, and free 
to trade. Many of them have realised a 
competency, and the richest man at Singapore 
is one of their country, who came there a 
beggar, and, by dint of craft and industry, 
attained to notorious wealth. These circum¬ 
stances do not, however, make them loyal to 
the people who give them hospitality; they 
maintain an intimate correspondence with 
China, regard themselves as Chinese subjects, 
owing no allegiance to England, but desirous 
to seize the country in the name of the empe¬ 
ror, their master. The mandarins have as 
much authority over them as if they were 
a portion of the mob of Canton, cultivated 
rice-fields near the Grand Canal, or picked 
tea on the Chinese uplands. They are at 
heart savage and cruel, and, at the same 
time, sly and treacherous. The Malays are 
fierce, cruel, and crafty, and are much ad¬ 
dicted to piratical offences, but altogether 
they are less dangerous, although far more 
troublesome, than the Chinese. The Chinese 
portion of the town is utterly filthy, sending 
forth a stench intolerable to all but its in¬ 
habitants. 

The appearance of the people of so many 
nations in so small a compass is at once pic¬ 
turesque and curious. The natives of all the 
various countries above-named, who find la¬ 
bour and subsistence at Singapore, retain 
their costume as well as their customs, and 
betray their nationality by their appearance 
as well as by their language. 

The port is open to the commerce of 
all countries; there being no dues or taxes, 
except a small import for the lighthouse. 
The revenue of the island is small; the 
budget for the fiscal year 1853-4 showed— 
receipts £47,G97, and expenditure £55,242. 
One of the resources of the exchequer is the 
opium tax, which has been generally farmed 
by a cunning Chinamen, who has realised 
wealth by it. There is a constant source of 
litigation and chicanery in this opium farm¬ 
ing, discreditable to the government and 
demoralising to those who undertake the 
task of collection. A change in this matter 
is requisite. 

From the foregoing description of the place 
and its inhabitants, no one would suppose 

VOL. i. 


that literature flourished there, yet in few 
places out of the United States of America 
are there so many newspapers in proportion 
to population.* 

The accounts of the government are kept 
in rupees, annas, and pice ; those of merchants 
in dollars and cents. A considerable agita¬ 
tion existed for some time on this subject; the 
East India Company being desirous to con¬ 
form the mercantile usage to that of the 
government, whereas the mercantile commu¬ 
nity strenuously maintained the convenience 
of the system so long in use. This contro¬ 
versy occasioned the compilation of the fol¬ 
lowing statistical tables, which afford a com¬ 
parative statement relative to the transac¬ 
tions of the colony with those countries where 
the rupee is current, and where the dollar 
currency prevails:— 

The dollar is current in the following, viz..—Borneo, 
Celebes, China, Cochin-China, Java, Rhio, and islands to 
the southward, Kongpoot, Malay peninsula, Manilla, Siam, 
Sumatra. 

The rupee is current in the following, viz.Nicobars, 
Pegu, Rangoon, Arracan, Calcutta, and ccasts of Coro¬ 
mandel and Malabar. 

The trade between Singapore and dollar couutrics 
during the last two years was as follows:— 


1852-3. 1853-4. 

Dollars. Dollars. 

Imports. 7,458,875 9,649,060 

Exports. 8,036,382 11,074,622 


Total. . . 15,495,257 20,723,682 


* The Singapore Free Press. Established 1833. 
Weekly. Subscription, sixteen dollars per annum. 

Singapore Straits Times. Weekly. Subscription, six¬ 
teen dollars per annum. Established in 1845. 

The Straits Times Express, for Australia, is got up at 
the Times press. Price, one shilling per copy. 

The Straits Guardian. Editor, A. Simonides. Weekly. 
Subscription, twelve dollars per annum. 

The Free Press and Guardian are printed with common 
hand-presses. 

The Straits Times press establishment comprises letter- 
press, copper-plate, and lithographic work; bookbinding 
in all its branches. 

The workmen consist of Hindoos, Portuguese, Chinese, 
Malays, Javanese, and Klings (natives of the Coromandel 
coast); and it is the more remarkable to see how well 
they do their work in a language which they do not un¬ 
derstand. 

The Singapore News-room, as it is called, is tne news¬ 
paper file-room of the editor of the Straits 'limes. The 
room is a large one, sixty feet by forty, and contains one 
hundred and twenty files of papers from all parts of the 
globe, most of them exchanges. The room is well supplied 
with prices current, maps, &c., and is in the centre of the 
commercial part of the town. Officers of ships of war, 
.commanders of merchant vessels, and strangers (pas¬ 
sengers), who arrive by the many steamers and sailing- 
vessels constantly passing through the harbour, are admitted 
free of charge. Here will be found files of the Indian, 
China, and Australian journals; also the New York Ship¬ 
ping List and Price Current, Hunt’s Merchants’ Magazine 
(which, by the way, may be found in the commercial 
library of all nations), and several San Francisco papers. 

D D 









202 


HISTORY OF THE 


With the rupee countries during the 
been thus:— 

1852-3. 

Dollars. 

Imports. 3,540,992 

Exports.1,951,016 

same period it has 

1853-4. 

Dollars. 

4,927,382 

2,297,215 

Total 

. . . 5,492,008 

7,224,597 

The treasure imports and exports 
period has been as follows:— 

From the dollar countries,— 

during the same 

Imports . . 
Exports . . 

1852-3. 

Dollars. 

. . . 1,293,263 
. . . 3,857,622 

1853-4. 

Dollars. 

1,712,862 

4,628,308 

Total 

. . . 5,150,885 

6,341,170 

From the rupee 

countries,— 


Imports . . 
Exports . . 

1852-3. 

Dollars. 

16,553 
. . . 1,047,819 

1853-4. 

Dollars. 

883,092 

789,407 

Total 

. . . 1,064,377 

1,672,499 


The foregoing table was drawn up to show the amount 
of trade carried on between countries where the dollar 
and rupee were respectively 'current and the port of 
Singapore, in order that those interested in the question 
might see at a glance the preponderance of the dollar, as 
a coin, over the rupee, in the dealings with the natives 
frequenting that emporium, and to prove the injudicious 
policy of interfering with the currency at present estab¬ 
lished. 

The excess of trade represented by the dollar countries 
as compared with the rupee provinces is as follows:— 

Years. Dollars. 

1851- 2 .... 9,129,080 

1852- 8 .... 10,003,249 

1853- 4 .... 13,499,085 

The transactions in treasure are also in favour of the 
dollar, and show a surplus, as follows :— 

Years. Dollars. 

1851- 2 .... 1,745,539 

1852- 3 .... 4,086,508 

1853- 4 .... 4,668,671* 


MEMORANDA FROM RETURNS MADE TO THE 
DEPARTMENT OF STATE. 

Table of Moneys .—4 pice make 1 cent; 2f cents 1 
anna; 16 annas 1 rupee (R); 100,000 rupees 1 lac; 100 
lacs 1 crore. 

Table of Weights .—Measures of capacity are rarely 
used, and then only with certain articles, such as tobacco, 
&c. 16 taels make 1 catty, equal to 1 lb. 5 oz. 54 grs., 

or 1 jlb. avoirdupois; 100 catties make 1 (Chinese) picul, 
equal to 133g lbs. avoirdupois; 40 (Chinese) piculs 1 
royan ; 2 (Malay) piculs 1 char. The Malay catty weighs 
24 Spanish dollars, and the Chinese catty weighs 22J 
Spanish dollars. The native merchants buy all imported 
produce from the islands by the Malay picul, but sell it 
by the Chinese picul. 

Rice is sold by the royan of 40 piculs. 

Salt by the same, but weighs about 52 piculs. 

Gold and silver thread by a particular catty of 36 
dollars weight. 


BRITISH EMPIRE [Chai>. X 

Gold-dust by the bunkal, which weighs 2 dollars, equal 
to 832 grs. troy. 

Java tobacco is sold by the corge of 40 baskets. 

Indian piece goods by the corge of 20 pieces. 

Wheat and grain by the bag, containing 2 Bengal 
maunds ; the maund is 611 catties, equal to 82 lbs. avoir¬ 
dupois. 

Freights. —Ships of moderate size, say from 300 to 500 
tous, are most in demand for charters. The rates at 
which foreign bottoms are freighted or chartered depend 
on the demand for and supply of tonnage, the sailing 
qualities of the vessel, and the kind of cargo to be trans¬ 
ported. These vary so greatly, that it is impossible to 
give them even approximately. 

Commissions. —The ships of all nations, except those of 
the United States, pay a uniform commission of 10 per 
cent., which covers all expenses for pm-chasing or selling. 
For the American trade (U. S.) the usages are different, 
and are as follows:— 

Commissions on sales of goods or purchase 

of produce, free of risk, cither in sales or 

ou advances on produce*. 24 per cent. 

Negotiating bills of exchange. 1 „ 

Interest on moneys advanced, at per annum. 12 „ 

Ships’ disbursements. 2| „ 

Added to these expenses are boat and coolie hire, and 
w r arehousing, the charges for which, being governed by 
circumstances, differ widely. 

Sales and purchases. —Sales of imports are effected in 
the usual manner, by private arrangement with the 
buyer. Few articles of import are cleared by public 
auction. 

Purchase of cargo outward. —This is done by private 
contract (never at public sales) by the house to which the 
master of the vessel is consigned, the said house buying 
the goods from the natives, or, more generally, from the 
Chinese dealers, who are the “ first hands.” 

Terms of purchase. —These are, first, cash, or, second, 
confirmed credits from well-known houses, either in Lon¬ 
don or Liverpool. 

Exchanges. —The true par of exchange between the 
United States and this port cannot be determined. The 
most just approximation is to add to the Singapore rate 
of exchange on London the current premium of New York 
drafts on London, plus 2 a 4 per cent. 

Wages. —With regard to the rate of wages in the 
various branches and occupations of labour, and of per¬ 
sonal service iu the business of commerce and trade, only 
a few instances can be specified, such as bookkeepers, 
mercantile assistants, and clerks, who receive from 500 
dollars to 3000 dollars per annum.f 

In connection with the straits settlements 
there is a desideratum of too much conse¬ 
quence to he overlooked—namely, some effi¬ 
cient arrangement for suppressing the Coolie 
trade. This traffic is not permitted from British 
ports, and wherever British consuls are it is 
opposed, but means are found, by Americans 
more particularly, for carrying it on in a man¬ 
ner fearfully destructive to human life. The 

* Both these are guaranteed for an extra 24 per ceut., 
or 5 per cent, in all. 

f C. W. Bradley, American consul at Singapore- 

Some of the foregoing statistics would appropriately 
come -within a chapter on the general commerce of our 
Eastern empire, but the tables comprehend so much that 
is local, and relates to the internal arrangements as well 
as external relations of the island, that it seems better 
to give them in this place. 


* Mr. Woods, Editor of the Straits Times. 




















Chap. X.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


203 


unfortunate objects of this commerce are im¬ 
posed upon by promises of a five years’ en¬ 
gagement of labour, with remuneration, which 
to them is a strong temptation to embark in 
the enterprise ; they are borne away to Cuba 
or South America, and consigned to hopeless 
slavery. Some of our Indian subjects are in 
this manner deceived, and made slaves. 
American authors and travellers have ad¬ 
mitted and condemned the procedure. The 
following extract from one of those who saw 
what he describes, and did his best to acqrure 
accurate information concerning it, is as pain¬ 
ful to peruse as it is faithfully narrated:— 
l( The Westward Ho, Boston clipper, has just 
passed Anjer with eight hundred coolies from 
Swatow to Callao, and others have passed 
and are continually passing with their living- 
freights. The days of the African slave- 
trade are with the past, save what the Bra¬ 
zilian and Cuban traders may be engaged in; 
but the traffic in human life is not wholly 
abolished when we see English coal-ships, 
Peruvian convict-hulks, and American clip¬ 
pers, all heading towards the west coast of 
South America, every square foot of space 
occupied by a poor Chinaman, who thinks, 
when he receives a dollar in hand, to be spent 
in clothing, and makes a contract to work five 
years at eight dollars per month (fifty dollars 
being deducted for a passage, and all the rice 
lie may want guaranteed), that he is leaving 
purgatory for paradise. But when his owner 
puts him to work on the guano deposits, 
under the burning sun of the Chinchas, he 
will find out how sadly he has been deceived. 
That horrible affair of the Waverley, Boston 
ship, at Manilla, it makes me shudder to think 
of it, and chills my very blood when fancy 
pictures the blackened swollen forms of two 
hundred and fifty human beings, the one piled 
on another—worse even than the frozen sol¬ 
diers of Napoleon on the Nieinen and at 
Smolensko, or the startling horrors of the 
Black Hole at Calcutta. American clippers 
are daily leaving. The Westward IIo, Hussey, 
and Bald Eagle, with about seven hundred 
each, have left, the former to Callao, the 
latter to Havannali. The Australia and 
Bonaventura, with four hundred each, have 
gone to Havannah; and the Amelia, of 
Boston, has sailed with six hundred for 
Callao. The War Hawk, two thousand ton 
clipper, with nine hundred was loading for 
the same port; the Winged Racer, of Boston, 
Captain Gorham, was about to sail with seven 
hundred for Havannah.” This was the state 
of things in reference to the coolie traffic just 
two years ago. From the eastern shores of 
Bengal, the Coromandel coast, the straits, Siam, 
and China, in a greater or less degree, this 


vile traffic goes on, in spite of the East India 
Company and the British government. x\ll 
the South American states having, or pro¬ 
fessing to have, any commerce with the Indo- 
Chinese peninsula are implicated. The con¬ 
suls of Peru, in some cases, openly abet it. 

The British settlements of Borneo are on 
the western coasts of that island, and hold an 
anomalous relation to the British government. 
They are the result of the private enterprise 
of a brave and adventurous man, Sir James 
Brooke, who has acquired sovereignty, and 
bears the title of rajah. He is not only 
willing but anxious to surrender that sove¬ 
reignty to the crown of England, but, al¬ 
though considerable importunity has been used 
by persons interested in the commerce of the 
neighbouring seas, and although the press of 
Great Britain has in strong terms censured the 
government for its neglect, nothing has been 
done for securing these colonies to the crown. 
The Dutch have settled in other portions of 
the island, and claim the sovereignty of the 
whole, except those portions where Sir James 
Brooke has established his colonies—Sarawak 
and Labuan. The British rajah is not a 
young man, and should he die, there is every 
likelihood that the Dutch will take posses¬ 
sion of those settlements, unless in the mean¬ 
time the British government assert its supre¬ 
macy. It will hardly be possible for the vis 
inertias,, so characteristic of English govern¬ 
ments in colonial matters, to resist much 
longer the strong pressure of public opinion 
in favour of an arrangement with Sir James, 
just and beneficial both to him and to the 
colony. 

There are only two islands in the world 
larger than Borneo—viz., Australia and New 
Guinea. It is situated to the east of Sumatra 
and Malaya, and to the south-eastward of the 
empire of Annam, on the Indo-Chinese penin¬ 
sula. The people are pagans, except a com¬ 
parative few, who have embraced Mohamme¬ 
danism. Their rites are sanguinary, their 
worship gloomy, and the attributes they as¬ 
cribe to deity in reality describe a fiend. 
They are of various races : Dyaks, Javanese, 
Malays, Siamese, and Chinese, inhabit the 
island, as well as the aboriginal races. For¬ 
merly there were British settlements on the 
coasts, but tacitly the Dutch were allowed to 
claim sovereignty. This makes it somewhat 
difficult for the British government to assume 
authority in the colonies established by Sir 
James Brooke, and places them in a position 
which is as dangerous as it is exceptional. 

From Labuan, on the north-east coast, to 
Sarawak, on the south-east, coal is abundant. 
This circumstance gives these settlements an 
especial value in their relation to the British 




204 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


lChap X. 


Eastern possessions. The expenditure of coal 
by the English navy in the Eastern seas is 
enormous. Eight thousand tons per month 
were consumed, in 1856, by the naval squa¬ 
dron in the waters of China alone. During 
1857 probably two hundred thousand tons 
were required. All this is carried out from 
home. It is undeniable that the position of 
Borneo in relation to Australia, China, and 
India, makes it most important in connection 
with its coal resources. 

In order to accomplish industrial under¬ 
takings, Sir James has had to employ many 
Chinese. The Dyaks will not work mines; 
they believe the bowels of the earth to be filled 
with demons, and no rewards can stimulate 
their courage or their labours, although brave 
and energetic in other enterprises. These 
Chinese settlers, influenced by emissaries 
from Canton and Singapore, revolted in 1857, 
and endeavoured to massacre Sir James and 
the British. The energy of the English 
rajah, and the gallant co-operation of the 
Dyaks, enabled him utterly to subdue the 
revolt. Sir James has established churches, 
schools, hospitals, and other concomitants and 
means of civilization; piracy, once the scourge 
of the Indian Archipelago, has been entirely 
suppressed; and nothing seems wanting to 
the prosperity of the eastern shores of Borneo 
but the acknowledged shield of British power, 
and the prestige of her majesty’s imperial 
authority. 

The last of the maritime settlements of 
England which it is necessary to notice as 
connected with her Eastern empire is Aden. 
This place is situated near the entrance of the 
Red Sea, and was occupied by the East India 
Company for the purposes of suppressing 
piracy and of awing Persia. In the historical 
portion of the work that circumstance will 
more properly come under consideration. 
The Arabs regarded the possession of the 
ancient port of Aden by the infidels as a 
great indignity, and made desperate efforts 
to recover it. It was necessary for the com¬ 
pany to negotiate with the Sultan of Labad, 
whose acquiescence they secured. The rock 
of Aden rises two thousand feet above the 
level of the sea. To the British it is an 
excellent coaling-station, apart from its poli¬ 
tical importance. The native population is 
about twenty thousand. Few Europeans 
reside there, except those in the service 
of the company. The garrison consists of 
a detachment of European soldiers and a regi¬ 
ment of sepoys. A recent traveller, whose 
observations are as correct as his pen is 
sprightly, thus conveys the impressions left 
on his mind by a visit:—“The rock, the 
plain, and the whole shore look barren 


enough; nor bird, nor beast, nor plant, nor 
creeping thing—you might almost say, with¬ 
out misrepresenting :—nothing at any rate of 
note can be seen from our anchorage or from 
the fort and village on the beach. You must 
have a donkey or an Arab horse the moment 
you get ashore, and take a ride along the 
beach, through the thatched village, past the 
mass of granite rock, over the long military 
road, down under the bridge, through the 
deep, dark passage -way cut out of the solid 
rock, to the cantonments, or barracks, in the 
valley beneath, where you will find the native 
town, the sepoy barracks, the European set¬ 
tlements, the chapel on the hill for the Epis¬ 
copalians, and the cathedral below for the 
Roman Catholics, the drill-ground, and all 
that there is to note at Aden. On every 
side of you nothing but rock, rock, rock. It 
would be banishment to live here. The 
company have spent plenty of money in 
fortifying, but the, money has not been well 
invested, say some of our military passengers. 
I am astonished to see how poorly fortified 
are many of the ports of England’s colonies. 
It would appear to me that, had the Russian 
China fleet been willing to run the risk of 
British cruisers, they might have bombarded 
Singapore, Penang, Madras, and Aden; but 
the destruction of property would have been 
the only inducement, as they could not have 
held the places for any length of time, for the 
oriental steamers can transport troops post¬ 
haste to protect the flag of England. But 
there is one thing pretty certain—India can 
spare no troops for the Crimea; she wants 
them all within her empire, for the natives 
are always plotting.’’ The last remark of 
this quotation is worthy of the serious atten¬ 
tion of the British public. The alarm felt 
during the Russian war along the seaboard of 
India, and in the British maritime possessions 
in the East, was described and discussed by 
the author of this History in another work,* 
but it is here also necessary to point out the 
defenceless condition of those colonies, and of 
the seaboard of India. The Indian navy, 
however excellently officered or manned, and 
however efficient for the suppression of piracy 
or hostile operations in the Arabian Sea and 
its gulfs, is inadequate for the defence of 
India and the straits settlements during war 
with a naval power. The royal squadron in 
the Chinese waters, except during hostilities 
with that country, does not constitute a 
sufficient force for such a purpose in conjunc¬ 
tion with the Indian navy. The land de¬ 
fences of India and of the various settlements 
already described ought to be on a scale of 

* Illustrated History of the War against Russia. 
J. S. Virtue, City Koad, and Ivy Lane, Loudon. 



Chap. XL] 


IN INDIA AND TIIE EAST. 


205 


greater efficiency, whatever confidence the 
naval superiority of the British empire may 
inspire. 

Hong-Kong is one of our maritime settle¬ 
ments in the Eastern seas, hut a description 


of it is omitted from this chapter, because it 
will necessarily he referred to in the next, as 
a part of China, under the head of indepen¬ 
dent countries with which we have been at 
war in the progress of our oriental dominion. 


CHAPTER XI. 

INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES WHICH HAVE BEEN THEATRES OF WAR DURING THE PROGRESS 

OF OUR EASTERN DOMINION. 


CHINA. 

While we write, hostilities are being con¬ 
ducted against this country by the united 
arms of England and France. An infraction 
of treaty, the history and consequences of 
which will be recorded in the historical por¬ 
tion of this work, has led to the dernier ressort 
of aggrieved nations. This gives a peculiar 
interest at the present time to anything 
written concerning an empire so vast and a 
people so wilful—strangely uniting so many 
elements of weakness and power. 

The Chinese empire is the most populous 
in the world, and the most populous also 
which the world has ever seen. It contains 
nearly four hundred millions of persons—one- 
third of the entire population of the globe. 
It is in all likelihood larger than Russia in 
Asia, and is only surpassed in area by Russia, 
including its European and American as well 
as Asiatic dominions, and by the British 
empire, which stretches over so many regions. 
The Chinese empire contains greater diversity 
of climate than any other, unless that under 
the dominion of England, which, in its Euro¬ 
pean, African, Asiatic, Australian, and Ameri¬ 
can territory, comprehends all climates, over 
areas which vie for extent even with the area 
of Russia. 

It would be inappropriate to the nature of 
this work to give a minute account of China, 
while it is necessary to notice its position, 
extent, population, character, and resources, 
as one of those oriental powers with which 
we have been frequently at war, and within 
the dominions of which we have planted our 
flag. 

The boundaries of the Chinese empire are 
Russian Asia on the north, India and the 
Indo-Chinese peninsula on the south, the 
Pacific Ocean on the east, and Turkistan on 
the west. Its area is computed to exceed 
five millions of square miles—equal to one- 
third of the Asiatic continent, considerably 
larger than Europe, and comprising one-tenth 
of the habitable globe. The natives designate 
it Teen-hea (“under heaven”), in order to 


express its vastness. The oceanic boundary 
consists of various seas and gulfs, formed by 
the continent and its archipelagoes, and by 
vast inlets. Among these are the Gulf of 
Tartary, the Sea of Japan, the Yellow Sea, 
so called from the colour of its waters, which 
contain a large quantity of earthy matter, 
brought into it by the rivers which give it its 
peculiar hue, and make it shallow; the Chinese 
Sea, which has obtained terrible notoriety by 
its typhoons. These hurricanes are the most 
violent of any in the world. They occur at 
remote intervals, in certain seasons, and may 
be guarded against, indications of their ap¬ 
proach being made by sky and water, as well 
as by the signal fall of the barometer. 

China proper is distinguished from the 
other portions of the empire, and comprises 
about one-fourth of its area. It lies on the 
south-east of the empire, and has a coast-line 
of two thousand five hundred miles, and a 
land frontier of four thousand miles. It is 
very mountainous, especially in the west; 
some of the mountains are perpetually covered 
with snow. Several ranges branch off to the 
east, approaching to the Pacific. The Nan- 
ling is one of these lateral ranges, and is 
known as intercepting the water communica¬ 
tion between Canton and Pekin. The goods 
transported between these places are borne 
from one side of the range to the other through 
the passes by porters. The hills are covered 
with timber; where nature has not effected 
this, Chinese industry has accomplished it. 
The mountain slopes are planted with rice- 
fields and with gardens. There blossom the 
orange-tree, which is, in its season, prolific in 
frfiit; there may be seen vast multitudes of 
beautiful camelias; also rice-fields carefully 
formed on terraces, and irrigated by Chinese 
industry and skill. 

The principal portion of China proper is an 
alluvial plain, extending from Pekin along 
the Yellow Sea to Nankin, comprising nearly 
a quarter of a million square miles. This 
vast area is a rich granary, especially of rice, 
and the population is multitudinous. It i3 




206 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XI. 


watered by tlie rivers Yang-tse-Kiang and 
Hoang-ho, which, rising in Thibet, flow west 
to east to the Yellow Sea, after courses of 
more than a thousand miles each. The Yang- 
tse-Kiang is the largest river in China, and 
is about sixty miles wide at its mouth, ap¬ 
pearing like a sea. Nankin is situated on 
this river, about two hundred and twenty-five 
miles from its place of disemboguement. The 
Si-Iviang is the great river of the south, 
and well known by European mariners, as it 
passes by Canton. The Pei-ho is the great 
northern river, which falls into the Gulf of 
Po-cheelcs. These rivers, and others of 
minor note, irrigate the country. 

Few Europeans have been permitted either 
to travel inland, or by boat to pass any con¬ 
siderable distance up the rivers. Undoubtedly 
the most successful in the latter description of 
enterprise has been “ the Times special cor¬ 
respondent.” Most of our Chinese travellers 
have seen only a few of the cities opened to 
Europeans by the treaty effected by Sir 
Henry Pottinger; what they relate is from 
hearsay. The gentleman above referred to 
has, by his courage and good fortune, been 
enabled to make his passage good along 
various river-courses, and to visit the cities 
on their banks. The Yang-tse, “the great 
river,” “the father of rivers,” “the girdle 
of the empire,” as the Chinese love to call 
it, is for a long course, up to Shanghai, 
known to Europeans. The Times' corre¬ 
spondent, passing up from the sea, thus de¬ 
scribes it:— 

“Next morning we were still out of sight 
of land, but the leadman’s cry told that we 
were steaming in shallow waters. The 
morning’s bath showed that the water was 
quite fresh and opaque with rich and alluvial 
soil. There were no other symptoms of 
land. We were in the mouth of the mighty 
river Yang-tse—‘the child of the ocean’— 
the richest river in the world—richest in 
navigable water, in mighty cities, in indus¬ 
trious human beings, in affluent tributaries, 
and in wild margins of cultivated land of 
exhaustless fertility. This vast expanse of 
turbid fresh water is saturated with the loam of 
fields fifteen hundred miles away. A portion 
of this rippling element was gathered upon 
those great mountain ranges of Central Asia 
where the Ganges, the Brahmapootra, and 
the two great rivers that irrigate Siam and 
Cochin-China, and the fierce ‘yellow river’ 
which pervades the north of China, divide 
the drainage. The volume was increased by 
every mountain and every descending stream¬ 
let through six hundred thousand square 
miles of midland China. In its pride and 
in its strength the proud river fights for 


a little while with ocean himself for empire, 
drives back his salt waves, and establishes a 
fresh-water province in the midst of his 
dominions. The Chinese love and venerate 
the Yang-tse as Chinese sons love and vene¬ 
rate their fathers. Philosophers draw their 
parables from his greatness and beneficence; 
historians chronicle his droughts and floods 
as events more important than the change of 
dynasties; and poets find his praises tho 
most popular theme for their highest flight 
of song. 

“ We had steamed for some hours in this 
shallow sea, when a line, having length, but 
neither breadth nor thickness, became just 
visible far away upon our left. As our course 
was tangential to this line, it gradually be¬ 
came more distinct. Then through our 
glasses we could see a level coast, well tim¬ 
bered with trees—no palms or Eastern forms 
of foliage, but such an outline as we might 
trace on the banks of Essex or Lincolnshire. 
Between the river shore and the woodlands 
there was a margin of meadow land, where 
droves of cattle and flocks of sheep were 
depasturing, and everything around, except 
only the fierce sunshine, gave promise that 
we had escaped into an European climate. 
Then land upon the right grew into view— 
not the opposite bank of the Yang-tse, that 
is far out of sight, but an island which he is 
throwing up. From day to day he piles there 
the spoils he brings down from the midland 
province. The pilots say they can observe 
increase every week. The Chinese are al¬ 
ready planting bamboo there to give solidity 
to the rich alluvial soil. A thousand squatters 
are ready to seize upon it and convert it into 
gai'dens immediately the tide shall cease to 
cover it. 

“ Fishing, and carrying, and convoying, a 
thousand junks and lorclias are scudding to 
and fro in the estuary. But we proceed not 
far up the channel of ‘the child of the ocean.’ 
A checker-painted sea-mark (which wants 
only a telegrajxh upon it to make its useful¬ 
ness complete) and a floating lighthouse mark 
the point where the last tributary to the 
Yang-tse-Kiang, the river Wangpoo, joins 
its waters. Upon a low spit of land stands 
the desolate and amphibious-looking village 
of Woosung. The place is not really deso¬ 
late, and is not really amphibious, for large 
fortunes are constantly being made here (the 
golden sands of commerce accumulate as 
rapidly as the deposits of Yang-tse-Kiang), 
and the piles on which the buildings are 
erected lift them up out of danger of inunda¬ 
tion. But the Chinese have a talent for giv¬ 
ing an appearance of squalor to their town 3 
and villages.” 



Chap. XI. j 


IN INDIA AND TIIE EAST. 


?07 


The river beyond Shanghai is similar in 
character: still of immense width, shallow, 
loaded with alluvial matter, its banks swarm¬ 
ing with populous villages, the occupants of 
which are ever busy in all the forms of in¬ 
dustry known to China. Rich soil, fields 
carefully cultivated and luxuriantly produc¬ 
tive, meet the eye of the voyager up this 
great artery of Chinese commerce. Here 
and there pagodas and temples present their 
strange forms to the traveller’s gaze, while 
the wanderers are themselves objects of in¬ 
tense and not always amicable curiosity to 
the natives. 

The enterprising gentleman just quoted 
also sailed up the great tributary of the 
Yang-tse — the Wangpoo, and has been 
enabled to describe what no other European, 
except those of his party, has been favoured 
to see. His letter was written on the 10th 
of August, 1857, and, from its recent date, 
derives very peculiar interest. 

“ On the appointed day, Mr. Edkins, the 
missionary, Dr. Dickson, of Canton, and 
myself started in three saucliau boats, with 
a fair flood tide, up the Wangpoo River. 
Our object was to reach Ningpo through the 
network of internal canals, and without cross¬ 
ing the bay. This is a journey never yet 
made even by the missionaries, and Mr. Ed¬ 
kins regards it as a pioneering expedition 
preparatory to future labours. Our first 
stage is to Hangchow, and thus far our boat¬ 
men have covenanted to convey us. These 
sauchau boats are somewhat like the larger 
gondolas which go outside into the Adriatic. 
The cabins are fitted up with no little pre¬ 
tension. Mine had plate-glass windows; 
much carving and some gilding had been 
lavished upon it. There was a joss-house 
with a vacant niche for any idol I might 
fancy to put there, and two ecclesiastical 
candlesticks, upon the spikes whereof I might, 
if I had pleased, burn any sized joss-sticks 
or wax candles. The extent of this, my 
habitation for the next six days, was however 
not great—it was seven feet six inches square. 
Nor was there provision for effeminate luxury. 
There was a locker within which I might put 
my most important baggage, on which I 
could spread my bamboo matting, and over 
which I hung my mosquito curtains; there 
was a small table and two camphor-wood 
stools. What more can a man want? There 
was a box, with ‘ Fortnum and Mason’s ’ 
name upon it in one corner, a modicum of 
sherry and Bordeaux and a dozen of soda- 
water in another corner, and a revolver and 
double-barrelled gun handy to the grip. The 
use of the firearms is, I believe, solely this— 
the boatmen will not go on at night unless 


they know you have them. The adroitness 
of the Chinese thieves will justify their con¬ 
tempt for any barbarian swell mobsman. Mr. 
Edkins not long since found that some one 
had, during his slumbers, crept in at the 
cabin window, taken his keys out of his 
pocket, opened his trunk, and abstracted all 
his dollars, leaving the trunk open, and 
nothing else, not even the proprietor, dis¬ 
turbed. But I do not hear of any open 
piratical attacks up the country, and you do 
not want firearms to drive away a thief. The 
first thing he would steal would probably be 
the gun and the revolver. 

“ Off we go, then, up this tributary, of the 
Yang-tse-Kiang. About four miles an hour 
is our pace, propelled as we are by one 
gigantic oar, worked over the stern by three 
men, curved in the handle, and made to per¬ 
form in the water the evolution Ave call 
skulling. We pass through the European 
shipping, by the floating bath, and into and 
along moored tiers of junks, which may 
almost vie in numbers Avith the shipping in 
our pool. Hundreds of these ply between 
Shanghai and Amoy, bringing sugar here 
and taking cotton back. A thousand others 
will start this season for Shantung, and 
will carry with them one hundred thousand 
pieces of our grey shirtings—a demand owing, 
the merchants say, to exceptional causes. In 
an hour Ave are clear of the environs of 
Shanghai, and Ave look to see the river con¬ 
tract to the proper decent dimensions of a 
third-rate stream. Nothing of the sort. SeA r en 
miles up the Wangpoo is still quite a mile in 
Avidth, and for the greenness and flatness of 
its banks, and the European outline of foliage, 
avc might be a little below Gravesend. Re¬ 
senting, perhaps, my small respect for him 
as a third-class river, the Wangpoo treats us 
to a capfull of wind just as the tide is finished, 
and the boatmen incontinently run into a 
creek, Avliich leads up to a village possessing 
a high pagoda and a Buddhist monastery. 

“ We passed the night upon the wide and 
troubled Avaters of the Wangpoo with less of 
meekness than befitted the peaceful character 
of my companion. I insisted upon starting 
as soon as the flood tide made. Every vrave 
seemed to break under the flat bottom of my 
boat, and she rolled and quivered and creaked 
as though she would have quoted Mencius to 
rebuke my impatience. But the night was 
very beautiful. It aauis so hot that I lay out¬ 
side, Avith my head against the broad junk¬ 
like prow, and e\ T en the rushing wind brought 
no coolness; the round moon looked down in 
all her splendour, but did not dim the light 
of the big stars. EA r er as one of our sister 
boats AA r ent ahead, the oar oscillating to and 



203 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chat. XI. 


fro at her stern, produced a sheet of phos¬ 
phoric radiance which neither moon nor stars 
could pale. Sometimes we neared the banks, 
and then the monotonous croak of the frog 
was heard, and in sheltered places flights of 
fireflies, like flakes of diamond, fluttered up 
and down among the cotton plants, and then 
also myriads of mosquitoes, of great stature, 
came off and sounded their declarations of 
war in my ears. 

“ We were not alone on the Wangpoo. 
On the contrary, there were never less than 
a hundred sail. Up the flood tide of the 
Wangpoo Dr. Dickson’s boat separated from 
us last night, and is not come up. The boat¬ 
men talk of perils from pirates or foundering 
in the storm. We wait and send back run¬ 
ners, and learning no tidings, conclude he has 
returned to Shanghai. Two large navigable 
tributaries fall in, but the river above is not 
much decreased in width. After some hours’ 
further voyage, the Wangpoo loses its name 
and form. It divides into two equal channels, 
one of which descends from the right, and 
comes down from a string of lakes that extend 
to Soo-choo; the other is our way. Tribu¬ 
taries and canals now come quickly in, show¬ 
ing how wonderfully ramified is the internal 
water communication of this land. Of course 
the volume of the stream contracts as we 
ascend. At night the action of the tide is 
but faintly felt, and we anchor in a channel 
about fifty yards wide. In the moonlight 
Dr. Dickson’s boat comes up with a tale of 
adventure. The next day was a day of canals 
and great cities.” 

The aids to the river navigation and irri¬ 
gation of China by canals are numerous—the 
Grand Canal being the largest work of the 
kind in the world, and history supplies no 
ground for believing that any work of equal 
magnitude has ever existed. The scenery, 
rural and social, on the banks of the Grand, 
or, as it is also called, the Imperial Canal, 
is to European eyes most peculiar. The 
fullest account extant written by an Eng¬ 
lish eye-witness, is that of the Times' cor¬ 
respondent, who visited it late in the autumn 
of 1857:— 

“ The only Chinese objects which to the 
eye of Western taste are really beautiful, are 
the bridges that cross their canals at frequent 
intervals. The willow-pattern plate, so faith¬ 
ful in other matters, does not do them justice. 
Sometimes they consist of three arches, but 
generally of only one. In the latter case, 
solid masonry of carefully-faced granite or 
limestone advances into the water from either 
side. In the centre spi'ings a light and 
graceful arch—more than a semicircle, quite 
half an oval; it springs forty feet high, and 


the crown of the arch has not two feet of 
superstructure resting upon it. There is no 
keystone, but the thin coping-stones are cut 
in the proper curve. The bridge itself is a 
terrace, mounted by steps on either side at an 
angle of forty-five degrees. The effect is 
veiy graceful and airy, and as no wheeled 
carriages are used in China (except wheel¬ 
barrows), they answer all practical purposes. 
A sunset on the Imperial Canal, with the 
monuments on the banks, a vista of these 
bridges, and the mountains of Nganhwui in 
the far distance, is a sight I shall remember 
when I look again upon Claudes and Turners. 
We are thankful that at last there are moun¬ 
tains in view; for this perpetual level, fat 
and fertile as it is, grows depressing. It is 
our fifth day, and we are expecting to reach 
Hangchow, where all our difficulties of transit 
must be expected. While writing I have 
passed along five miles of rural district, with 
banks all built up, like a Parisian quay, of 
wrought granite, and the towing-path carried 
over stone bridges which cross the frequent 
branches of this immense artificial navigation. 
I despair of conveying the idea of Cyclopean 
work, enormous traffic, patient industry, vast 
natural fertility, individual content, and peace¬ 
ful prosperity with which this journey im¬ 
presses me. The pagodas are in ruins, and 
where the quays have fallen there is no hand 
to repair them. The imperial grain-junks 
are rotting, and the few forts are in decay; 
but these evidences of decrepitude in the 
rulers have not yet operated to affect the 
personal happiness which springs from fertile 
lands and industrious husbandmen. At the 
end of one of the long straight lines of this 
highway we discern at last a far extending 
mass of houses, whose walls exult in bright 
whitewash, and whose roofs are all of old 
grey tiles. These houses seem to extend far 
back, and to overspread the plain that inter¬ 
venes between the bank of the canal and the 
highlands that form the background of our 
present view. This, seen through a mob of 
junks, moving and still, is Hangchow as it 
appears from the Imperial Canal. All things 
indicate the capital of a great province. Our 
old friends the imperial grain-junks have 
been rotting in hundreds for the last ten 
miles, the canal has been of extending width, 
mandarin passage-boats, towed by strings of 
coolies, have gone by sounding their gongs 
and flaunting their banners, while the man¬ 
darin looked out from his seat of honour, 
and from behind his fan eagerly eyed the 
strangers. The commercial navy of China 
(pur sang —no schooners or lorchas) were 
taking in paper, tea, rice, oil, bamboo basket- 
work, and a thousand other articles of pro- 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


209 


Chap. XI.] 

duce. They are loading the tea here in its 
natural state, in chests protected by matting. 
It is all for Shanghai and the export-market; 
that is to say.it is all of that high-dried kind 
which will pass the sea. I counted eighteen 
junks, of about two hundred tons each, lying 
together ready laden with this European 
necessity.” 

The productions of the country are nume¬ 
rous and abundant, and the extreme industry 
of the people adds to the fecundity of their 
fertile soil. Rice is the great staple, but many 
valuable fruits and vegetables are also pro¬ 
duced. The sugar-cane is, in some districts, 
very fine, and is used in various ways by the 
inhabitants. The mulberry-tree abounds, 
especially along the tributaries of the Yang- 
tse, and in the country near the Imperial (or 
Grand) Canal. Beans are extensively culti¬ 
vated in some districts. Very useful trees, 
shrubs, and plants, yielding food or materials 
for commerce, are abundant all over China: 
the Japan varnish, known to British com¬ 
merce, is distilled from the lacker shrub; mate¬ 
rial for candles is obtained from the tallow- 
tree; rice paper, as it is termed, is procured 
from a leguminous plant common in the 
marshes; the lotus is made useful for food 
and other purposes; cuniferous trees are 
abundant. The humblest cottager contrives 
to cultivate some garden vegetables, with 
persistent industry, in places the most dis¬ 
advantageous. 

The tea-plant is known to be indigenous 
to China, the rest of the world deriving its 
chief supplies from thence. This plant (Thea 
Chinensis) is an evergreen, and a very hardy 
shrub in China, although in India, both in 
Assam and the Himalayas, it has been neces¬ 
sary to treat it as a delicate plant. It attains 
the height of five or six feet. The tea export¬ 
ing districts are not so extensive as is generally 
supposed in Europe, being confined to limited 
portions of the provinces of Fo-kien, Quang- 
tung, Kiang-see, Kiang-su, and Tclie-kiang. 
In almost all the other provinces the amount 
produced is consumed where grown, and is 
of a coarse quality, unsuitable for commerce. 
Fo-kien exports the greatest quantity of 
black, and Kiang-su the greatest quantity 
of green. It is not generally known that 
both kinds are obtained from plants of the 
same species : the difference in the exported 
commodities arises from the leaves having 
been collected at different stages of their 
growth ; and from the employment of colour¬ 
ing matter with the green, such as Prussian 
blue and gypsum. The young leaves before 
they expand, and the mere shoots, yield a 
black tea called Pekoe, and a green tea called 
Young Hyson, which is prepared as to colour 

VOL. X. 


bv tinctures. When the young leaves have 
fully opened out, the tea is called Pouchong, 
Souchong, and Camper as black tea, and 
Imperial Gunpowder and Hyson as green 
teas. The older and stronger leaves receive 
the name of Congou as a black tea, and 
Twankay and Hyson skins as green teas. 
The oldest and coarsest of the leaves pro¬ 
duce Bohea, the lowest in quality. 

The skill with which the cultivators of the 
plant superintend its growth has much to do 
with the quality of the tea produced. This 
was made evident by the experiments of the 
East India Company. It was not until Chi¬ 
nese cultivators were employed, and some of 
the company’s agents proceeded to China and 
studied the treatment of the shrub, that their 
plantations in the Himalayas prospered; and 
even in Assam such arrangements were 
necessary. 

The Dutch, in 1610, were the first to 
import tea into Europe: it was more than 
half a century later before it was brought to 
England. Two-thirds of all the tea exported 
from China is consumed by the English. 
The Americans, Dutch, and Russians are the 
only other peoples who extensively import it. 

The botany and flora of China are very 
varied and beautiful. Even in prolific India 
and Ceylon, the botanical gardens are in¬ 
debted to China for a rich portion of their 
exotic treasures. It is probable that even 
the fairy floral scenes of the Indian slopes of 
the Himalayas are exceeded in beauty by 
those of the southern mountains of China. 
These are literally clad with azalea; and 
amidst the beauty thus produced, there is a 
profusion of gorgeous shrubs and flowers— 
clematis, roses, honeysuckle, and numerous 
wild flowers and shrubs, known only to the 
botanists and florists of Europe, are spread 
out in endless variety, forming a natural car¬ 
pet of the most glowing hues. “ The flowery 
land ” is no boast, however vain the Chinese 
may be of applying the appellation to their 
country. Cashmere may surpass, and Ceylon 
may rival, the floral beauties of China—and 
there are a few spots on the great table-land 
of the Deccan where flowering shrubs, within 
a more limited range, are produced equally 
fine; but it is to be doubted whether else¬ 
where in the world there is another such land 
of flowers as the regions of the southern 
hills. 

China is not rich in domestic animals: 
horses, oxen, and sheep are not plentiful, nor 
are their species good. It does not pay to 
rear domestic animals. The population, espe¬ 
cially of some provinces, is so numerous, that 
every inch of land is required for tillage to 
supply man with food; while, at the same 

E E 




210 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chai\ XI, 


time, human labour is too cheap for that of 
horses and oxen to he profitably used. In 
the south-west the tiger and rhinoceros are 
found, but not in great numbers. The tiger 
is a fine and fierce creature, resembling 
that of Bengal, but rather inferior in size and 
strength. 

The ornithology of China is very various. 
The gold and silver pheasants are beautiful 
creatures, by many supposed to be finer than 
the pheasant of the Himalayas. Domestic 
fowl grow to a very large size, and the eggs 
are of a magnitude which surprise Europeans. 
The forms of the ornithological productions 
of China are often very peculiar, and not 
unfrequently very beautiful. 

The ichthyology of China is also varied, 
and exceedingly beautiful. Gold and silver 
fish, so much admired as domestic pets in 
England, are common in China. Sturgeon, 
and other large fish, are abundant and excellent 
in quality. Shell-fish are exceedingly various: 
the natives eat every species, and the poor 
classes seem to do so without discrimination. 
The number of persons employed in the sea 
fisheries is very great, although in conse¬ 
quence of the prevalence of piracy they incur 
great danger, their cargoes being frequently 
seized, and the boats’ crews massacred from 
sheer love of cruelty. It is necessary, in 
consequence of this state of things, for a fleet 
of fishing boats to go out with a convoy. 
The fishing boats which ply off the mouth of 
the river Yang-tse pay convoy duties, which 
amount to fifty thousand dollars a year. The 
wood junks which ply between Ningpo and 
Foo-chow pay three times as much as the 
fishing junks. The vessels which lately 
acted the part of protectors were Portu¬ 
guese lorchas, but they changed their cha¬ 
racter into pirates more formidable than those 
they were hired to repel. They made de¬ 
scents upon the villages, destroyed the fishing 
tackle and store-houses, slew the men, and 
carried off the women. The Portuguese 
consuls winked at these atrocities, and at last 
appeared to be their patrons; for men cap¬ 
tured in the acts of murder or spoliation were 
handed over to the Portuguese consul, and 
were allowed to escape with impunity. The 
Chinese government actually hired the old 
pirates to put down the new ones, and a con¬ 
flict ensued, in which the Portuguese be¬ 
haved with a cowardice seldom equalled, 
their junks were destroyed, their fugitives 
pursued on land and slain, and the Por¬ 
tuguese consul, their abettor, driven from 
Ningpo. This occurred in 1854, since 
which the fisheries have been protected, and 
the supply greatly increased. 

The mineral productions of China are very 


rich, the principal being copper, zinc, quick¬ 
silver, and kaolin, or porcelain earth, of 
various sorts, some of the. finest quality. The 
precious metals are found in small quantities. 
The most important mineral resource of the 
empire is coal, which exists in vast quan¬ 
tities, and over a widespread area. In the 
neighbourhood of Pekin, the coal deposits 
are worked on an extensive scale, as wood is 
scarce, which the Chinese always prefer for 
fuel. Frequent outcrops show that there are 
immense seams of coal in the vicinity even 
of Pekin, never yet worked. The Chinese 
are bad miners, although they work assi¬ 
duously when directed by skilful engineers. 
They do not use vertical shafts, and are 
ignorant of the means by which water is 
exhausted from mines. In consequence of 
the necessity of emptying the water with 
small casks, and of carrying up the coal in 
small baskets, the expense of working these 
collieries is considerable, notwithstanding the 
cheapness of labour. Consequently, even in 
the vicinity of the coal seams, the poor use 
for fuel slack, coal gravel, and yellow clay, 
mixed with water into a thick paste, and 
moulded and baked like bricks. 

The porcelain clay is obtained chiefly in 
the neighbourhood of King-te-takin, a town 
and district in the province of Kiang-see, 
east of the Payang Lake. In the town and 
district there are said to be two millions of 
persons engaged in the porcelain manufac¬ 
ture. There are not less than five hundred 
furnaces in the town alone. Chinamen say 
that the aspect by day and night in this 
neighbourhood is remarkable — clouds of 
smoke darkening the sun, or pillars of fire 
illuminating the sky. Their descriptions 
correspond with what the traveller sees in 
England when travelling through the great 
manufacturing districts of Warwickshire and 
Staffordshire. Foreigners being carefully ex¬ 
cluded, to prevent discovery of the pro¬ 
cesses of the manufacture, there is no reliable 
testimony as to the true condition of the dis¬ 
trict, or the extent of its manufacture: all 
classes in China, from the throne to the coolie, 
delight in lying, and there is no form of 
falsehood which they so much practise as 
exaggerated statements of the population, 
resources, beauty, and power of their country. 

The porcelain earth is a clay resulting 
from the decomposition of felspar; the colour 
is white, yellow, or reddish white. It is not 
generally superior in China for manufacturing 
jmrposes to that which is found in Corn¬ 
wall, in England, in the Island of Bornholm, 
in the Baltic, or in Germany. 

Among the productions of China silk is 
prominent. The mulberry-tree has been 





IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


211 


Chap. XI.] 

long a staple production, and the wide 
area over which it grows, together with its 
excellence, enables the Chinese to rear vast 
numbers of the worm. China may be said to 
be the country par excellence of silk, of which 
there seems to be an inexhaustible source. 
It furnishes large quantities to the neighbour¬ 
ing nations and to Europe, and also clothing 
for the greater part of the inhabitants: there 
are very few, except of the lowest orders, but 
what are clad in silk garments. 

To the Chinese we owe the knowledge of 
the maniffacture of silk, and that which is 
imported excels that of every other country 
in brilliancy and colour. The imports of 
China silk have largely increased of late 
years. The imports, which in 1830 were 
6000 bales, and in 1846 14,103 bales, had 
risen in 1856 to 56,561 bales. The average 
weight of the bales of China silk is—raw, 
103lbs. nett; thrown, 113lbs. nett. Assum¬ 
ing the bales to be 1 cwt. each, the imports 
in 1856 amounted to 2828 tons. 

“ China silk consists of two leading kinds, 
produced severally in the provinces of Can¬ 
ton and Nankin. The latter, which is very 
superior to the Canton silk, is known in com¬ 
merce under the names of Tsatlee and Tay- 
saam. Tsatlee is the Canton patois for Tsih 
Se, or seven cocoons, the mode in which this 
silk was, perhaps, originally reeled. It is 
now quite otherwise. Taysaam is the Ta- 
tsan of the Chinese, literally the gros cocon 
of the French, and is significantly descriptive 
of this kind. Unlike the production of silk 
in Italy, France, and Bengal, in China there 
are no large filatures or extensive establish¬ 
ments for reeling silk of a known size, qua¬ 
lity, or kind, uniformly regular throughout. 
All China silk is the produce of cottage or 
domestic husbandry, and is mostly reeled by 
the peasant population which raises the 
worm. The wholesale prices on the 1st of 
January, 1857, were as follows, being nearly 
double the rates ruling a quarter of a century 
ago :— Tsatlee, first and second, 25s. to 26s.; 
ditto, third and fourth, 23s. to 24s. 6d.; Tay¬ 
saam, 19s. to 23s. 6c ?.; Canton, 13s. to 
19s. 6 c?.; China thrown, 18s. to 26s.” * 

The silkworm gut, used for fishing in 
China, and exported for that purpose to 
other countries, is produced in large quan¬ 
tities. “ In making silkworm gut, the silk¬ 
worm caterpillar is immersed in vinegar when 
it has left off feeding, and is looking out for 
a convenient corner to spin his cocoon. The 
silk-bag is then perfected, and out of this the 
gilt is prepai'ed in pure strong vinegar. The 
time for maceration is about three weeks, or 

* Catalogue of the Collection of Animal Products in 
the Sonth Kensington Museum. 


more if the w r eather should be cold and un¬ 
favourable. When near the time, one or 
two of the worms are taken out and tried. 
After due maceration, the worm is broken 
exactly across the silk-bag, and the two parts 
are drawn gently asunder, until the gut 
appears to be of the proper thickness, and 
then hung up to dry in the air.” * 

The raw silk is produced by the operation 
of winding “ at the same time several of the 
cocoons on a common reel, thereby forming 
one smooth even thread. When the skein is 
dry, it is taken from the reel, and made up 
into hanks; but before it is fit for weaving, 
and in order to enable it to undergo the pro¬ 
cess of dyeing, without furring up or sepa¬ 
rating the fibres, it is converted into one of 
three forms—namely, singles, tram, or organ- 
zine. Singles (a collective noun) is formed 
of one of the reeled threads being twisted, in 
order to give it strength and firmness. Tram 
is formed of two or more threads twisted 
together. In this state it is commonly used 
in weaving as the shoot or weft. Thrown 
silk is formed of two or three or more singles, 
according to the substance required, being- 
twisted together in a contrary direction to 
that in which the singles, of which it is com¬ 
posed, are twisted. This process is termed 
organzining, and the silk so twisted organ- 
zine .” f 

There is a material of silk export called 
“ ‘ waste cocoons ’—that is, the cocoons after 
having had all the serviceable silk reeled 
from them. Within the last year or two 
these (which were before thrown away as 
worthless) have been shipped to Manchester 
in considerable quantities, where they have 
fetched Is. 4 d. to Is. 6c?. per pound. They 
are ‘carded,’ and made into silken thread 
used for the lower description of silk goods.” £ 

In the northern parts of China, especially 
in elevated situations, bird-skins are used for 
shoes and other articles of clothing, and the 
carcasses are, strange as it may appear, used 
for fuel. The feathers of the Argus pheasant 
( Argus giganteus), supposed to be found only 
in the Malayan peninsula and Sumatra, but 
which is also a native of China, are much in 
request, for ornament, the wing and tail fur¬ 
nishing beautifid specimens. “ Peacock fea-' 
thers were at one time employed by Canton 
manufacturers in making variegated threads, 
which were used in forming beautiful capes 
for females. Permission to wear the pea¬ 
cock’s feather in the cap in China is, like the 

* Her Majesty’s Commissioners for the Exhibition of 
1851. 

+ Ibid - 

+ Catalogue of the Collection of Animal Products in 
the South Kensington Museum. 



212 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chat. XI. 


European orders, always specially granted to 
tlie individual wearer.” Marabout feathers, 
which are chiefly obtained from the marabout 
crane in Cochin-China, are also an article of 
production and commerce in the Chinese 
empire. The feathers of the silver pheasant 
are carefully collected, and exported to Europe 
and America for fly-fishing and ornamental 
work generally. The feathers of the golden 
pheasant, which are perhaps more beautiful 
than those of any other bird except the pea¬ 
cock and bird of paradise, are also exported 
to Europe and America for fly-fishing. The 
feathers of the common Chinese fowl are also 
carefully collected for various purposes of 
home use and export. 

“ The Chinese manufacture beads of various 
kinds, fisli-counters, &c., from the mother-of- 
pearl shells, in a far superior manner to that 
of artists in Europe. Three sorts of beads 
arc made there—one perfectly round, the 
second not quite round, and the other cut; 
and they are tied up into bunches of one 
hundred strings, each string containing a 
hundred beads. The fish-counters are cut 
into various shapes—round, oval, and ob¬ 
long, and are usually sold in sets of about 
a hundred and forty pieces. Various species 
of placuna, being thin and semi-transparent, 
are used in parts of China for glazing windows 
in junks and on shore, and for lanterns, as 
horn is used here. The Chinese also use 
the powder of this shell for silver in their 
water-colour drawings.” * * * § 

The Chinese create artificial pearls, by 
introducing small pieces of wood, wire, and 
baked earth into the pearl mussel, f These, 
by irritating the animal, cause it to cover the 
substance with a pearly secretion. Little 
figures, made of wood, are frequently intro¬ 
duced in this manner, and when covered with 
the pearly deposit are used by the people as 
charms. J In this manner pearl-covered 
figures of Buddha are obtained, the nacre¬ 
ous deposit being so laid upon the image as 
to make it an object of beauty. § These 
figures generally represent the great sectary 
in a sitting posture. These are treasured by 
the people, or exported to Birmah, Siam, Sin¬ 
gapore, Tenesserim, Pegu, and even to Ceylon, 
where the great pearl fisheries are. The 
large snail pearl-shell of Singapore (Turbo 
marmoratus) is much sought after by the 
Chinese there, and sent to China, where it 
is highly valued, and is sent thence to other 
countries. The pearl-white oyster-shell (Me- 

* Specimens, Soutli Kensington Museum. 

t Edgar A. Bowring, Esq.; Museum of tlie Royal 
College of Surgeons, Drawing by Professor Quekett. 

% Sir John Bowring. 

§ Dr. M'Gowan, of Ningpo. 


leagrina Margaritifera ), in its natural state, 
as brotight home from China, may be seen 
among the specimens of shells and marine 
products in the Museum of the Commissioners 
of Art.* This shell is used in a great variety 
of ways in the manufactures of China. 

Beeswax is a commodity produced in China 
in increasing quantities. 

The musk-deer is hunted in Thibet, for the 
sake of the musk, which is brought down to 
China proper, and thence exported, but only 
in small quantities, the animal not being com¬ 
mon in Eastern Asia. 

It is a general impression in England 
amongst all classes, exclusive of merchants 
and men of science, that, with the exception 
of tea and silk, China produces very little 
that is fit for commerce or conducive to 
luxury among her own people. A more 
intimate acquaintance with her productions, 
soil, climate, and the industry of her people, 
will dispel tliis impression. Her selfish policy, 
as regards intercourse with other nations, 
leaves many of her natural products which 
are adapted to commerce imperfectly de¬ 
veloped, and the existence of many materials 
which contribute to taste or luxury among 
her own people are now only beginning to 
be known in Europe. The commerce carried 
on by the Chinese of Singapore is tending to 
display the resources of the Chinese empire ; 
and were trade and intercourse perfectly 
free, China would export many valuable ma¬ 
terials almost at present unknown to com¬ 
merce, or only known in a limited degree. 

The territorial divisions of China have 
varied very much. In reference to this a 
well-known authority has remarked :—“ The 
scientific skill of the Jesuit missionaries ac¬ 
complished a survey of the whole of this fine 
country on trigonometrical principles, so 
admirably correct as to admit of little im¬ 
provement ; and, with the exception of the 
British possessions in India, there is no part 
of Asia so well laid down as China. Since 
the time of the Jesuits’ survey, however, an 
alteration has taken place in the divisions of 
the country. The provinces of China, which 
then consisted of fifteen in all, have been in¬ 
creased, by the subdivision of three of the 
largest, to eighteen. Iveang-nan has been 
split into Iveang-soo and Gan-hoey, Hoo- 
kuang into Hoo-nan and Hoo-pe, and the 
western part of Shen-sy has been extended, 
and called Kan-so. These eighteen pro¬ 
vinces constitute a compact area, extending (if 
we leave out the island of Ilaenan) from about 
21° to 41° of north latitude, and measuring 
in extreme length from north to south about 

* Class n., Animal Products, Division 4. 



Chap. XI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST, 


213 


twelve thousand geographical miles, with an 
average breadth from east to west of nearly 
20° of longitude, or something less than the 
extent north and south.” * 

The present arrangement of provinces is 
thus given :— 

The Northern Province.—C hi-le; Shan-tung; Shan- 
see; Honan. 

Tiie Eastern Province.—K eangsoo; Gangwhuy; Ke- 
angsee; Chekeang; Fukeen. 

The Western Province.—S hense; Kanseli; Szechaen. 
Tiie Middle Province.—H oopee; Hoonan. 

The Southern Province.—K waugtang ; Kwangse ; 
Yanan; Kweichow, f 

Another arrangement of the provinces into 
maritime and inland presents the following :— 

MARITIME PROVINCES. 

Cities and Towns. 

Pe-chee-lee.Peking. 

Shan-tung.Tsi-nan-foo. 

Kiang-su.Nanking, Shang-hae. 

Tche-kiang.Hang-choo-foo, Ning-po. 

Fo-kien.Foo-choo-foo, Amoy. 

Quang-tung.Canton, Macao. 

INLAND PROVINCES. 

Shan-see.Tai-yuen-foo. 

Shen-see.Si-ngan-foo. 

Kan-su.Lan-tchou. 

Ho-nan.Kai-fong-foo. 

Gan-hway.Ngan-kiug-foo. 

Hoo-pee.Woo-tchang-foo. 

Floo-nan.Tchang-cha-foo. 

Kiang-see.Nan-tchang-foo. 

Quang-see.Kwei-ling-foo. 

Kwei-chew.Kwei-yang-foo. 

Yuu-nan.Yun-nan-foo. 

See-tchuen.Tchiug-too-foo.f; 


* The Chinese: a General Description of China and 
its Inhabitants. By John Francis Davis, F.R.S., Gover¬ 
nor of Hong-Kong. 

This measurement differs somewhat from the more 
recent and accurate estimates which we give, but this 
authority is more generally relied upon, 
t The Rev. Thomas Phillips, 
f The Rev. Thomas Milner. 

It will be observed by the reader that these authorities 
spell the names of places differently; it is impossible to 
find any two authors who agree entirely in the spelling of 
Chinese words. This circumstance also exists in refer¬ 
ence to Hindoo terms, but to a still greater degree in 
Chinese. The author of this work will use quotations as 
he finds them, and adopt for himself the most usual and 
best known modes of writing names of places and things. 
It will assist the reader to inform him that, according to 
Milner, the following descriptive terms are of common 
occurrence in the geography of China:— 

Pe, north ; nan, south ; tung, east; see, west. Hence, 
with king, court, we have Pe-king, the north-court; Nan¬ 
king, the south-court; Tung-king, the east-court;—as 
having been, at different periods, imperial residences. 

Shan, mountain. Thian Chan, or Shan, the Celestial 
"Mountains; Shan-tung, east of the mountains; Shan-sce, 
v> sst of the mountains. 

IIoo, lake. Iloo-nan, south of the lake. 

JIo. river, and kiang, river. Hoang-ho, yellow-river; 


The climate is on the whole more tempe¬ 
rate than any equal area in Asia, and in 
some portions it is very equable and agree¬ 
able. It is remarkable, however, for the low 
temperature that prevails during winter, par¬ 
ticularly along the coast, in latitudes in which 
in other parts of Asia or Europe such severity 
is unknown. Pekin is more southerly than 
Naples, yet frost prevails for three or four 
months every year. Nankin is nearly on the 
same line of latitude as the mouth of the 
Nile, but during the winter months in the 
latter region the most genial weather pre¬ 
vails, while at the former there is severe 
frost. Canton is under the tropic of Cancer, 
and the summer heat is very oppressive, but 
there is generally frost in January, and occa¬ 
sionally falls of snow have been known there 
at that season. The climate on the coasts very 
much resembles that on the seaboard of the 
United States. Situated on the eastern sides 
of great continents, both regions are liable to 
extremes of cold and heat at opposite seasons, 
particularly the former, as compared with the 
same latitudes in other parts of the same con¬ 
tinents. The heat at Canton, which is on 
nearly the same line of latitude as Calcutta, 
is not much greater, if at all greater, than in 
that place, but the thermometer never falls 
below the freezing-point in the metropolis of 
India, whereas it nearly always does so during 
winter at Canton. 

Before noticing the vast extent of country 
beyond China proper, it is suitable to consider 
those peculiarities of the empire which are 
more especially characteristic of China pro¬ 
perly so-called. 

The two great works of the Chinese are 
the Great Wall and the Grand Canal. The 
wall extends from a fort in the Gulf of Pe- 
chee-lee westward along the southern fron¬ 
tier, a space of fifteen hundred miles, over 
mountains, ravines, valleys, rivers, and plains. 
It is a great earth rampart, admitting of a 
carriage or several horsemen abreast to pass 
along the top. It was originally cased with 
stone and brick, but these have become 
dilapidated. This wall is of very unequal 
height. On the mountains it frequently 
does not exceed ten feet; in the valleys it 
rises to the height of thirty feet, and is there 
flanked with numerous redoubts, or projec¬ 
tions resembling such. There are gates at 
intervals for convenience of ingress and 

Si-kiang, pearl-river; Yang-tse-kiang, river of tbe son oi 
the ocean. 

The provinces are distributed into three classes, deno¬ 
minated foo, chew, and hien, terms of rank. Theii 
capitals are denoted in like manner—those which have 
foo appended to their names being cities of the firs* 
rank; chew, of the second; and hien, of the third. 



















211 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XI. 


egress, such, as may be allowed, and also for 
the purpose of levying duties of transit. It 
was once a formidable barrier to the predatory 
Tartars, but is now badly guarded, and the 
smugglers have made breaches in many 
places, which no attempt has been made to 
repair. 

The Grand Canal extends from Hang-choo- 
foo in the south, to near Lin-chin in the 
north, where it joins a river-system con¬ 
nected with the capita], its whole course 
being seven hundred miles, with an ordinary 
width of two hundred feet. Much praise 
has been bestowed in Europe upon the engi¬ 
neering skill exhibited in this construction, 
but there does not seem to be any warrant 
for regarding it in that light. It is formed in 
a level country, which was composed chiefly 
of loam, and other light soil; no engineering 
difficulties of any kind were presented. The 
amount of labour employed was of course 
great, and the utility of the work was beyond 
question, as it opened up an inland navigation 
where the country was without rivers, or 
possessing rivers not navigable. Davis, how¬ 
ever, commends the engineering skill dis¬ 
played in choosing a line of country so free 
from difficulties. It does not, however, ap¬ 
pear that even this encomium is deserved, for it 
required nothing beyond commonplace obser¬ 
vation to perceive the portions of the country 
requiring such a channel of inland commerce, 
and which afforded the greatest facilities for 
cutting a canal. The untiring industry of 
the people in producing this great work 
merits all commendation. Mr. Davis declares 
that no moral revolution could effect such a 
change in China as the introduction of the 
Roman Catholic calendar, for they have no 
saints’ days, although many saints, and no 
holidays, on any pretext or reason, in China. 
The most recent accounts of the Chinese 
which have been received in this country 
are those contained in the letters of the 
special correspondent of the Times, and his 
representations of the untiring and energetic 
industry of the Chinese along the Imperial 
Canal will enable us to account for the per¬ 
severance with which that work was brought 
to a completion. The “ special correspon¬ 
dent” thus describes the habits of the rural 
and village population :—“ Again we were in 
the country, among the mulberry-trees and 
the rice-fields, the patches of tobacco, the 
sepulchral mounds, with their waving banners 
of high reeds, the gourds trellised on bamboo 
framework, and the agricultural population 
all at work—men and women, with equal 
energy, treading at their irrigation wheels. 
Here is the secret of the fertility of this great 
delta: every hundred yards a little family ! 


treadwheel, with its line of tiny buckets, is 
erected over the canal, and the water is 
thrown up to refresh the mulberry-trees or 
mature the rice. When the Arabs learn to 
labour like this, the plain of the Metidja may 
become as productive as this delta of the two 
rivers. We must have passed ten thousand 
people to-day engaged in this irrigation 
process.” 

The ingenuity of the inland fishermen, the 
industry of the gardeners, the energy of the 
boatmen, and the depressing effect upon all 
these important qualities which is created by 
the oppressive government of the emperor, 
and the necessary political discontent of the 
people, are graphically shown in the follow¬ 
ing extract from the same writer:—“ At 
Keashin, however, we leave that network of 
canals which, although over fifty yards broad, 
are now narrowed to a channel by light bam¬ 
boo partitions on each side. The enclosed 
side-water is hired and cultivated as ling 
gardens, a water-loving root, which the 
English call ‘buffalo head,’ and which the 
Chinese much affect. Worse, however, than 
the ling gardens, the huge hulks of the im¬ 
perial grain junks encumber these small 
canals. Since the rebels have been estab¬ 
lished at Nankin the inland communication 
has been stopped, and the food of Pekin goes 
round by sea. Many hundreds, therefore, of 
these junkj have become useless. They are 
rotting in all directions, filling up the chan¬ 
nels—some above water, some below, all of 
them in decay. They must not be broken 
up, or sold, or burnt,—they are imperial pro¬ 
perty. At Keashin we enter upon the Im¬ 
perial Canal. Between the carefully-piled 
banks of this noble river—for it is as wide 
as the Thames at Kew—we journey for 
three days, passing, and sometimes tarrying 
at, villages, and towns, and cities. It is' the 
country, however, which is most interesting. 

“ ‘ God made the country, and man made the town/ 

may be true in England, but here man has as 
much to do in making the country as in 
making the city. There is no lack of objects 
as we passed up, towed by these hardy boat¬ 
men. The irrigation wheels are constantly 
going, men and women working under their 
awning of mats. The junks and boats are 
never ceasing—who shall number the vehicles 
for water-carriage which China possesses? 
The fisherman, with his flock of fishing cor¬ 
morants perched on his punt, or swimming 
after him, is passing up under the bank, and 
I notice that if a cormorant gets a large fish 
which he cannot swallow he takes it to the 
punt, and receives something to devour in¬ 
stead.” 



Chap. XI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


215 


The city, population, and its habits of in¬ 
dustry along the line of the canal, may be 
judged by a single specimen from the same 
writer :—“ Although but a third-class city, 
we were at least an hour passing through 
Kiahing. There are extensive stores of that 
thick pottery ware used at Shanghai for 
baths and coarser utensils, much of it well 
ornamented. There are large carpenters’ 
shops, containing the simple silk-winding 
machine of the Chinese, in every stage of 
completion. We are now far advanced into 
the silk district. There is a large establish¬ 
ment for crushing seeds and making oil. We 
land to inspect it, and the proprietor is polite 
and explanatory. There are tea-shops over¬ 
hanging the water, and the customers, naked 
to the waist, are lounging and smoking, and 
sipping from their little cups a weak infusion, 
without milk or sugar. Then there is a 
break in the continuity of habitations—a 
rick of rice-straw and a grove of mulberry- 
trees—not large round-topped trees, such as 
we see in France and Italy, but trees free to 
grow as nature pleases, and bearing their 
leaves down to the bottom of their stems. Of 
the millions of mulberry-trees I have seen in 
this part every one has a good healthy foliage, 
and not one has been stripped in the manner 
I have somewhere seen described. Passing 
this great agricultural interval, we again im- 
merge into the city. We seem now to be in 
a district of merely domestic dwellings. The 
enormous signboards, covered with gigantic 
Chinese characters, are less frequent. There 
is a fat Chinawoman and her pretty little 
round plump daughter hanging out clothes 
in a very small number of square inches of 
drying-ground under the eaves of their cot¬ 
tage. In another building there is a solitary 
damsel employed upon her embroidery; and 
in another a palm-leaf fan is being used to 
drive the mosquitoes out of the curtains. The 
little domesticities of life are going on while 
the men are at business. Throughout the 
whole extent of Kiahing, and of every other 
city in this neighbourhood, there are well- 
finished quays of faced granite, having at 
every twenty yards broad stone stairs down 
into the water; upon these the long-tailed 
race, both men and children, stand and fish. 
Some of the stores are very extensive, run a 
long way back, and are divided from their 
neighbours by thick and high party-walls; 
biit the houses are all built to the same pat¬ 
tern—a garret above a shop, a slanting roof 
of tiles, and projecting eaves over both the 
shop and the garret. This is the unvarying 
form. Signboards with immense characters, 
the presence or absence of flowerpots and 
casements, and the various characters of the 


commodities for sale, constitute the only dif¬ 
ference. We entered Kiahing through an 
archway in the wall, and quitted it through 
a similar aperture. There is no difference 
between the city and the suburb, except that 
inside the walls the canals are narrower.” 

Perhaps no living European has accom¬ 
plished the navigation of the Imperial Canal 
to its remote inland termination, except the 
gentleman from whom these quotations have 
been made. In the following extract he 
records his arrival at that particular spot— 
the city of Hangchow (or Hangwhau), as it is 
generally called. It appears from his narra¬ 
tive, that but for some peculiar policy of the 
government, the navigation of that great 
artery of inland trade could be further ex¬ 
tended, as at Hangchow there is a large 
navigable river, to which it is necessary for 
passengers to transfer their cargoes and them¬ 
selves. The extract also refers to some 
important commercial facts which, although 
more strictly belonging to a future chapter on 
our oriental commerce, illustrate here the 
locality, the jealousy of the government, and 
the facilities already opening to personal 
visitation, where commercial operations are 
still fettered. The feat accomplished by the 
enterprising correspondent of the Times and 
his associates—if his European friends pene¬ 
trated so far who accompanied him in the 
earlier part of the expedition—is one full of 
interest to the European world, and more 
especially those who are not moved by 
curiosity merely, but are anxious for the 
opening up of China to commerce, civiliza¬ 
tion, and religious instruction. The infor¬ 
mation contained in the letter was afforded 
from Hangchow so late as the 22nd of 
August, 1857:— 

“ The irrigation wheel has now entirely 
given way to the wharf. The banks on 
either side are as the banks of the Thames 
when the river reaches the city’s eastern 
suburb. High above roofs and masts rise 
two lofty poles, whose cross-bars show them 
to be ensigns of official authority. They 
stand before a large public edifice. In China 
all public edifices are of the same pattern; 
jossliouses and palaces and public offices 
might, and very frequently do, interchange 
their purposes without much alteration. The 
building before us has the usual double tier 
of shelving roofs with upturned corners, as 
though the original designer of this style had 
taken the prows of four Greek galleys and 
put them together, with their rostra facing 
to the four cardinal points. It also has a 
very extensive gallery, which comes out on 
piles into the canal, and is roofed and orna¬ 
mented in proper official style, and crowded 



216 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XI. 


with Chinese officials. This building is the 
celebrated ‘ Pain Kwan,’ or * Ta Kwan ’— 
the ‘ new ’ or the £ great ’ custom-house. This 
is the foe of Manchester and Leeds, and Not¬ 
tingham and Sheffield. This is the first 
lock in the ascending water-way. Here Bri¬ 
tish calicoes get their first lift, to be still 
further lifted at very short stages. There is 
no escape. Here the Imperial Canal ends. 
There are small feeders which come down 
from places in the neighbourhood, but here 
the navigation ceases. There is a magnifi¬ 
cent navigable river, which rolls on the other 
side of the city, but with this the Imperial 
Canal has no connection. Such is the impe¬ 
rial policy: here at Hangchow everything 
must be trans-shipped. 

“ We pulled up at the custom-house, and 
I prepared for the rigorous search which must 
take place. I was determined to solve this 
mystery of the differential duties. I had a 
a piece of printed calico and a packet of clasp 
knives, and also some of my Chinese clothing, 
not yet worn, on the table before me. I was 
fully resolved to have a considerable discus¬ 
sion over the payment of these things. After 
a few moments, a man, something between 
the coolie and comprador class, and without 
even the small pyramidal official straw hat, 
put his head into the boat and said, as plain 
as unintelligible words and significant gesture 
could speak, ‘ That will do; go on.’—‘ But 
tell him,’ roared I to A’yu, £ that I have 
duties to pay.’—‘ He talkee all right.’— £ Tell 
him these boxes are all full of salt, and the 
boat is full of contraband goods.’— £ He talkee 
no mindee.’— £ Tell him we haven’t paid the 
boat toll .’—‘ He talkee bamboo boatee man.’ 
At this hint we were at once propelled from 
the shore, and I was left with my British 
produce to mourn over the fallibility of the 
best laid schemes. It was quite evident now 
that the officials were determined to ignore 
our presence. I knew there was a toll that 
would amount to nearly a dollar each on our 
boats; they refused, however, to take it from 
us. They allow us now to pass the custom¬ 
house unquestioned. They are clearly treat¬ 
ing the three Englishmen as Dogberry 
thought it best to treat rogues. Now I 
began to make frantic inquiries from China¬ 
men about the matter I had intended to settle 
myself. I am told that at this £ Ta Kwan ’ 
they take fifteen cash, or about three-half- 
pence, for a piece of China cloth, and four 
hundred cash, or three shillings, for English. 
A Chinaman will always give you an answer, 
and it will generally be the first phrase that 
comes into his head. I paid little attention 
to this assertion, and should not have repeated 
it, but that it seems to accord with my subse¬ 


quent experience. Shanghai is full of Eng¬ 
lish goods; at Keahing and Keashun I saw 
some English £ domestics; ’ but after we had 
passed the £ Ta Kwan ’ I never saw anything 
English exhibited for sale, except English 
sewing-cotton, which had penetrated even to 
the primitive city of Peh Kwan. It may be 
that the duties on English goods are as heavy 
as my Chinese informant says, but I must 
admit that I do not think the testimony worth 
much.” 

The architectural works of China are not 
of great magnitude: the European factories 
at Canton were probably the best buildings in 
the empire. Chinese architecture is not re¬ 
markable for taste—it is quaint, peculiar, and 
original, characterised by strange antithetical 
features. It is supposed that the people 
derived the idea of the shape of their roofs 
from the use of the tent in their primitive 
pastoral condition. Whatever the purpose for 
which a Chinese building is designed, the 
roof obtains something of the catenary curve 
which a rope assumes when suspended be¬ 
tween two poles, and which therefore forms 
the contour of a tent.* The want of solidity, 
characteristic of Chinese buildings, may be 
traced to the same origin. The bridges are 
the best specimens of Chinese architecture, 
many of them being constructed with great 
ingenuity. The arch was known to the 
Chinese before the Greeks and Romans un¬ 
derstood its principle. 

Military buildings are not numerous ; they 
are rudely strong. The best specimens were 
the forts which protected the entrance to the 
Canton River, but which have been battered 
by the British ships-of-war during the various 
contests with the Cantonese. Garden pavi¬ 
lions are frequently picturesque. Gateways, 
either honorary or monumental, are common 
in China; and these sometimes have con¬ 
siderable architectural pretensions. The tall 
towers, or pagodas, look pretty in perspective. 

The Chinese science of medicine resembles 
very much that of the island of Ceylon—a 
mixture of astrology, botany, chemistry, and 
Buddhist superstition. The drug-shops con¬ 
tain large assortments of simples; gums and 
minerals also enter into the pharmacopoeia. 
Ginsen and tea are prescribed in various 
ways; virtues are attributed to tea especially, 
which are unknown or not appreciated in 
Europe.f The medical practitioners have no 
knowledge of anatomy. Phrenology is a 
favourite study with them, and with the more 
intelligent Chinese generally. They have a 
saying, that a man may be known by his 
forehead, and a woman by the back part of 
her head. 

* Barrow f Dr. Abel. 



Chap. XI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


217 


The diseases which most commonly afflict 
the people are fever, ague, dysentery, cho¬ 
lera, bilious complaints of all kinds, pul- 
monary disorders along the eastern coasts, 
small-pox, which carries off large numbers of 
the population, except where vaccination has 
been introduced by the surgeons of the East 
India Company. Cutaneous diseases of many 
kinds are common; one of which, produced by 
animalcula, is very irritating and peculiar, but 
is removed by a native preparation of mercury 
applied as an ointment. 

In geometry and numbers the Chinese are 
deficient, and are indebted for the little know¬ 
ledge they have to Europeans. Their frac¬ 
tions are decimals, except in the common 
pound weight of the market, which, like our 
own, is divided into half-pounds, quarters, 
and ounces. 

Their geographical knowledge i3 entirely 
derived from Europeans. By the native 
geographers China is represented as the great 
central land, and other nations as small spots 
clustered around it. The proofs afforded to 
them, during the present century, of the 
superior power of European nations, and the 
extension of the British empire in the East, 
has somewhat stimulated their curiosity, and 
caused their educated men to consult geogra¬ 
phical works and maps. 

The science of astronomy is not cultivated 
or understood, althoirgh the Chinese are very 
attentive observers of the heavens. There is 
an Imperial Almanac published at Pekin, 
and the penalty of death is visited upon any 
persons who either alter or imitate it. 

In simple but ingenious machinery they 
surpass all other oriental people. 

Their music is very primitive; their instru¬ 
ments, chiefly lutes and guitars of various 
sorts, are very numerous. They have a 
squeaking fiddle of three strings, to which 
they are partial, and a bagpipe similar to that 
of Scotland, which is an instrument much in 
favour. A concert of these instruments is a 
discordant affair to European ears, but to the 
Chinese is a source of intense gratification. 

Their ornamental gardening is very pecu¬ 
liar, and perhaps there is no other art in 
Avhich they excel to so great a degree. A 
gentleman who resided at Pekin, in a magni¬ 
ficent pleasure-ground belonging to the em¬ 
peror, and who had ample opportunities for 
studying the habits and tastes of the people 
in this respect, thus depicts their talent for 
this pleasing art:— 

“ The grand and agreeable parts of nature,” 
he observes, “were separated, connected, or 
arranged, in so judicious a manner as to com¬ 
pose one whole, in which there was no incon¬ 
sistency or unmeanning jumble of objects; 

von. i. 


but such an order and proportion as generally 
prevail in scenes entirely natural. No round 
or oval, square or oblong lawns, with the 
grass shorn off close to the roots, were to be 
found anywhere in those grounds. The Chi¬ 
nese are particularly expert in magnifying 
the real dimensions of a piece of land, *by a 
proper distribution of the objects intended to 
embellish its surface; for this purpose tall 
and luxurious trees of the deepest green were 
planted in the foreground, from whence the 
view was to be taken; whilst those in the 
distance gradually diminished in size and 
depth of colouring; and in general the ground 
was terminated by broken and irregular 
clumps of trees, whose foliage varied, as well 
by the different species of trees in the group 
as by the different times of the year in which 
they were in vigour; and oftentimes the 
vegetation was apparently old and stunted, 
making with difficulty its way through the 
clefts of rocks, either originally found, or de¬ 
signedly collected upon the spot. The effect 
of intricacy and concealment seemed also to 
be well understood by the Chinese. At Yuen- 
min-yuen a slight wall was made to convey 
the idea of a magnificent building, when seen 
at a certain distance through the branches of 
a thicket. Sheets of made water, instead of 
being surrounded by sloping banks, like the 
glacis of a fortification, were occasionally 
hemmed in by artificial rocks, seemingly 
indigenous to the soil. The only circum¬ 
stance which militated against the picturesque 
in the landscape of the Chinese was the for¬ 
mal shape and glaring colouring of their 
buildings. Their undulating roofs are, how¬ 
ever, an exception to the first part of the 
charge, and their projection throws a soften¬ 
ing shadow upon the supporting colonnade. 
Some of those high towers which Europeans 
call pagodas are well adapted objects for 
vistas, and are accordingly, for the most part, 
placed on elevated situations.” * 

In painting the Chinese are not so deficient 
as they have been generally supposed to be by 
Europeans. They are bad landscape painters, 
being unacquainted with the rules of perspec¬ 
tive, although in their landscape gardening so 
skilful in obtaining its effect. Where per¬ 
spective, general combination, and imagina¬ 
tion are not required, they can draw well: 
their colours are exquisitely brilliant, and 
they can delineate figure. Birds, beasts, 
insects, and fishes are well painted by them ; 
yet they do not succeed in drawing the 
human figure and face either with the crayon 
or the pencil. They are capable of taking 
grotesque sketches, and caricatures in which 
much ideality is not requisite, but where 
* Farrow. 


F F 



218 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XI. 


the merit consists in a truthful yet humorous 
delineation of an odd circumstance, or asso¬ 
ciation, or a person of eccentric habits and 
appearance. They will sometimes “take off” 
an obnoxious European in a manner more 
truthful than flattering. 

They are not sculptors, but with plastic 
material they model beautifully, where ana¬ 
tomical proportion is not an essential: their 
modellings of drapery are very excellent. 

Their taste in carving woods and ivory, 
especially the latter, is well known in Europe. 
Beautiful snuffboxes of agate and rock-crystal 
are also carved. The ingenuity of the Chi¬ 
nese in working metals is surpassed by no 
eastern people, except in the precious metals, 
wherein the Bengalees surpass them. The 
art of printing existed in China many ages 
before its discovery in Europe. 

Gunpowder ( fire-drug , as the Chinese call 
it) was known in China long before Euro¬ 
peans were acquainted with it; but there is 
no proof that it was ever used for purposes of 
war. In pyrotechnic displays it seems alone to 
have been employed, until it was perceived 
that the western nations used it as a means 
of destruction. 

The magnetic compass was undoubtedly a 
Chinese discovery, yet they have not pro¬ 
fited by it in navigation. Their voyages 
have seldom extended farther than India, and 
at present the remotest voyage is Java or the 
Malay Isles. Instances have occurred of very 
long voyages in Chinese junks, and, as a case 
in point, one lately arrived in the Thames; 
these trips are, however, so purely excep¬ 
tional, that the limits above named as the 
bounds of Chinese naval enterprise are exact. 
According to the celebrated missionary Gutz- 
laff, the prejudices of the Chinese against all 
improvements copied from barbarians must 
ever impede their progress in ship-building, 
or in attaining to an effective commercial or 
warlike marine. Mr. Davis (the late gover¬ 
nor of Hong-Kong) is of a different opinion, 
and attributes to the jealous policy of the 
government the chief difficulty In the way of 
progress in navigation. The politician, in 
this instance, has probably formed a clearer 
view than the divine. The Chinese have 
copied Europeans in so many improvements, 
that there is no reason to suppose that they 
would be indifferent to the example set them 
in this respect. The Siamese have already 
followed European models in the structure 
of coasting vessels, and the Chinese have 
observed the fact with some feeling of envy. 
Various inventions attributed to the Chinese, 
and several attainments in science set down 
to the credit of their genius, are due to their 
mtercourse with Europeans. The Jesuits, in 


this respect, conferred upon China many 
advantages, and the people have appreciated 
it more readily and completely than has been 
understood in Europe. It is to this ready 
and apt appreciation of what has been taught 
them by others, that we are to ascribe the 
knowledge which, in so many respects, it has 
become the fashion in Europe to attribute 
to their originality. 

The religious and moral condition of the 
Chinese has of late years become a subject of 
benevolent inquiry and consideration amongst 
the Christian people of Great Britain. The 
vast mass of the Chinese people are Buddhists. 
In the chapter devoted to the religions of 
India, reference was made to this system as 
exemplified there. In the account given of 
the Island of Ceylon, further light was thrown 
upon it. Another page will afford a descrip¬ 
tion of the moral and religious condition of 
Thibet, and give an opportunity of still further 
illustrating the character and effects of this 
system. Under the name of Buddhists, how¬ 
ever, the great majority of the people of 
China are really atheists, “ without God, and 
without hope in the world.” Having been 
already so fully described, it is not necessary 
here to add anything to the notices of the 
Buddhist religion, or, as it may be more pro¬ 
perly designated, philosophy. 

Buddhism is not, however, the only reli¬ 
gious system known in China, as is commonly 
in England supposed to be the case. Many 
of the Chinese are heathens, who pay little or 
no attention to Buddha, but worship whatever 
deity seems to become most familiarly a can¬ 
didate for their homage. The vast numbers 
of Chinese who live on the sea, and are en¬ 
gaged in navigation, worship the Chinese 
sea-goddess, “ the queen of heaven.” The 
sailors of the celestial empire are perhaps the 
most profligate and ignorant portion of its 
population, and less capable of entering into 
the abstruse refinements of the Buddhist phi¬ 
losophy: accordingly, among other tangible 
deities, they especially worship the mariner’s 
compass. Offerings of gilt paper, such as the 
devotees of Buddha burn on shore before the 
huge images of their temples, are at sea 
offered to the compass with a heartier 
devotion.* 

The cultivated classes in China adopt the 
philosophy of Confucius as their creed; the mid¬ 
dle and lower classes are Buddhists ; the dregs 
of society are mere idolaters: but in every 
class, and under whatever sectarian designa¬ 
tion, there is a large leaven of atheism. 

i It is not generally known in Europe that 
China has many followers of “ the Prophet.” 
During the Mongul dynasty, founded by 
* Gutzlaff. 



Chap, XI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


219 


Kohlai Khan, the Mohammedans were nume¬ 
rous. They are distinguished by wearing a 
pointed cap. It is common for them to pur¬ 
sue the calling of mutton and beef butchers— 
a vocation utterly abhorrent to the consciences 
of the Buddhists. There is another small sect, 
that of Taou, or Laon-keun (the title of the 
founder). This sect seems to have ori¬ 
ginally corresponded with the Epicureans of 
the Greeks. The founder was a contemporary 
of Confucius, and at certain periods of Chinese 
history the sect obtained very great credit. 
They have now become few in number, and 
have sunk into mere soothsayers and quacks ; 
there are, however, a few places in the inte¬ 
rior where numbers flock to them—not so 
much as religious disciples as to have their 
fortunes told. 

There are many Roman Catholics in China; 
some have computed them at eight hundred 
thousand, and others have alleged that a mil¬ 
lion is more near the truth. So conflicting are 
the statements, and with so much acrimony 
are they made, that it is impossible to arrive 
at any fair and unbiassed conclusion. The 
Jesuit missionaries have laboured long and 
zealously in China, and many of the natives 
embraced their opinions. 

Protestant missionaries, sent out by various 
nations, especially by Great Britain and 
America, have long laboured in China, and 
with more or less success. The estimates 
made of the labours of these men have been 
very contradictory: one class of witnesses 
declaring that they had done no good, and 
never could reasonably hope to do any, while 
another has described them as having, by 
their most laborious perseverance in acquir¬ 
ing the language, translating the Scriptures, 
writing religious tracts and books, and by 
personal labours and preachings, accomplished 
much good, which, if not seen in numerous 
•converts, has not been without evidences ; 
while the discerning can perceive that a 
good foundation is laid for the extension of 
the gospel in China. The best authority 
we have, whose testimony is at all striking, 
while personally respectful to the mission¬ 
aries, is very decided against their success :— 

One word upon a subject to which I shall 
probably not have occasion to recur. I have 
sometimes spoken untenderly of topics much 
cherished by some of our Protestant mission¬ 
aries. There is, however, no subscriber to 
the various bodies which send preachers forth 
who thinks more highly of the usefulness of 
these men than I do. I will not say that they 
are making sincere Chinese Christians,— 
those who say this must be either governed 
by a delusion or guilty of a fraud,—but they 
are doing the work which, if China is ever to 


become Christianised, must precede its con¬ 
version. They live among the Chinese peo¬ 
ple, they speak their language, they are 
known to them by deeds of charity and bene¬ 
ficence ; their wives are the friends of the 
poor, friendless, Chinese women; their chil¬ 
dren prattle to the natives in their own 
tongue, and are the messengers of their 
parents in little offices of love. The mer¬ 
chants in China are almost universally large- 
hearted and benevolent men; they will give 
largely, but they have not either time or 
taste for such offices as these; nor would the 
wildest philanthropist expect it from them. 
Yet this must be done by somebody if China 
is to be opened. Even if I had no hope that 
the cold speculative systems of Laotze, Con¬ 
fucius, and Buddha could be overthrown—that 
those palaces of ice should some day melt 
before the fervid quickening fire of true reli¬ 
gion, still I would say plant missionary esta¬ 
blishments in China; but remember always 
that a fool, a bigot, or a firebrand can do 
more evil than ten good men can repair.” 

The spirit and general character of these 
remarks are commendable; but it is curious 
how frequently travellers and correspondents 
of the London and New York press record 
their convictions, or write letters, warning 
the public of Europe and America that the 
particular countries which they visit, and 
where missionaries labour, are not imme¬ 
diately converted, and that representations 
of missionary success are not to be credited. 
No such false representations exist; where 
the mission-field has been productive, that 
fact is thankfully recorded in the reports of 
the various successful societies, and in the 
minutes of their committees; where the soil 
has proved sterile, that fact is recorded with 
equal fidelity. It is not necessary for special 
correspondents and travellers who fly through 
regions where the agents of religious societies 
labour, to tell us that there is no success; 
for where that is the fact, the constituencies 
of the societies whose agents labour there, 
know it very well themselves : frequently 
there has been much good done, and very 
many converts have been silently gathered, 
where these cursory observers and imperfectly- 
informed critics have seen and learned nothing 
of those achievements. Instances have oc¬ 
curred of sanguine missionaries saying more 
for their own labours, or those of their fel¬ 
lows, than facts justified; but these cases 
have been exceptions. The efforts of Protes¬ 
tant missionaries in China have not been suc¬ 
cessful in proportion to the expenditure of 
means, and the number of men employed; but 
nevertheless much good has been done, and in 
the way the writer just quoted admits. 




220 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


CriAr. XL 


The Congregational or Independent churches 
of Great Britain and Ireland have the honour 
of having first embarked upon the stupendous 
enterprise of Chinese missions. A body pos¬ 
sessing so great a number of eminently learned 
and gifted ministers was especially adapted to 
the task. The London Missionary Society, 
which the body sustains, sent out Robert 
Morrison half a century ago: six years 
later he was followed by William Milne. 
By the joint labours of these extraordinarily 
patient, painstaking, and devoted men, the 
entire Scriptures were translated into the 
Chinese language, as Doctors Morrison and 
Milne became distinguished Chinese scholars. 
Both have long since entered upon their rest, 
after a life of honour and usefulness, and of 
much intellectual renown. China continuing 
closed against the preaching of missionaries, 
the society planted their agents at Java, 
Penang, Singapore, and Malacca. At these 
outposts the heroic men waited the hour when 
Providence would open the gates of China to 
their ingress. In the year 1842, after the 
war, “ the five ports were opened,” and the 
London Missionary Society occupied the 
ground—no other religious body having then 
possessed the requisite number of men learned 
in the languages spoken upon the shores of 
the eastern seas. At each of the five ports 
there is a Congregational church, composed 
of native converts, notwithstanding the in¬ 
ability of the Times' correspondent to dis¬ 
cover them. At Hong-Kong, the learned 
and talented Dr. Legge, and the medical mis¬ 
sionary, Hershberg, have laboured; at Canton, 
Dr. Hobson ; at Shanghai, Rev. Dr. Medhurst, 
W. Lockhart, M.D., Rev. W. C. Milne (now 
resident in England, and author of an inte¬ 
resting work on China) ; at Amoy the learned 
and laborious brothers Stronach took up their 
stations. The eminent men thus placed in 
the principal cities were supported by assis¬ 
tants, clerical and lay. The American Oon- 
gregationalists came to the assistance of their 
English brethren. They sent Dr. Bridgeman, 
Dr. Ball, and the Rev. Daniel Yrooman to 
Canton, where a body of eight native Chris¬ 
tians were organised as their assistants; at 
Amoy two ministers and three native assis¬ 
tants were placed. No less than six Congre¬ 
gational clergymen from the American board 
took up their residence at Fouchow. Dr. 
Medhurst and Dr. Legge, clergymen from the 
English Congregationalists, made great acqui¬ 
sition in Chinese learning, and contributed to 
the store of sacred literature, so important to 
other missionaries who shall succeed them. 
Dr. Medhurst, full of honours and usefulness, 
laid down his body and his charge together 
only a short time since. 


The labours of Dr. Charles Gutzlaff, of the 
Dutch church, are also well known. Having 
pursued his mission in Siam and the Malayan 
peninsula, he finally directed his efforts to 
China, and formed what is called the “ Chi¬ 
nese Christian Union,” for the purpose of 
religious teaching, and the distribution of 
religious books and tracts, especially the 
Bible and portions of the Bible. The consti¬ 
tution of the Union, and its performances, 
will be best understood by the following 
extract:—“ This institution was formed in 
the year 1844, in the first instance for the 
evangelisation of the Kwang-tung province, 
and subsequently extended its aim to the 
whole empire. In the same year there were 
262 baptised members of the society, who, 
on their reception, pledged themselves to 
make it a personal endeavour to advance the 
cause of Christ among their countrymen. 
Of this number about nine were engaged as 
preachers. It gradually increased from year 
to year, till, in 1847, it numbered 1606 mem¬ 
bers, of whom 64 were preachers, and in the 
year 1849 about 3000 members, including 
130 native preachers. The Union had, in 
its lists of publications, about twenty-four 
books and tracts, some of considerable length, 
and, added to this list, Dr. Gutzlaff’s Old 
and New Testaments. It professed at this 
time to have its preachers in nearly all the 
provinces of China; and, doubtless, with 
every allowance for much deception, it must 
have extended, by the oral and written 
medium, a considerable amount of Christian 
knowledge, to say the least, over a large por¬ 
tion of southern China. The larger number 
were spread over Kwang-tung and Kwangsi, 
and their converts were principally gathered 
from thence.” 

The American Episcopal Church has a 
staff of missionaries in China. Dr. Boone 
went to Batavia in 1837, and removed to 
Amoy in 1842, when it was opened to 
foreigners by the British treaty. On his 
revisiting America, in 1844, he was conse¬ 
crated a bishop of the American Episcopal 
Church, and, returning to China, assumed 
the superintendence of the American Epis¬ 
copal Mission, residing at Shanghai. The 
American Baptist Board commenced it3 la¬ 
bours for China in 1834; they occupied the 
outpost of Singapore, but in 1845 directed 
their labours to Canton. The American 
General Assembly’s board (Presbyterian) 
sent several missionaries to China soon after 
the ports were opened. The English Church 
Missionary Society quickly followed those 
already named, who took advantage of the 
opening of the ports, and has at a recent 
period established efficient missions at Shan- 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


221 


Chap. XL] 

ghai, Fouchow, and Ningpo. In 1850 tlie 
Chinese Evangelization Society, unconnected 
with any particular church, was formed. It 
has a few missionaries stationed at Soi-heong. 
In the same year the Wesleyan Methodist 
Missionary Society sent out three mission¬ 
aries, chiefly through the liberality of an in¬ 
dividual—its treasurer. The Rheinisli Mis¬ 
sion, and the Basle Mission, at Hong-Kong, 
and the Swedish Mission at Fouchow, are 
active and useful, particularly the latter. 
The English Presbyterian Mission at Amoy 
is conducted by these missionaries. Other 
societies have done a little, and individuals, 
especially ladies, are labouring unsustained 
by any society. There are probably two 
hundred Protestant missionaries now in China, 
of whom the majority are Americans. The 
Congregationalists of England and America 
constitute a considerable majority of those 
thus engaged. The power and influence of 
Confucms, and the mode in which the labours 
of Christian missionaries are conducted in 
China, are alike strikingly illustrated by the 
following passage from the report of the Lon¬ 
don Missionary Society’s mission at Shan¬ 
ghai :—“ But though the influence of idolati’y 
on the general mind is superficial, that of 

Confucianism is far otherwise.Some 

weeks ago a learned Chinese scholar, and a 
rigid disciple of Confucius, called upon Mr. 
Muirhead, and expressed himself very dis¬ 
pleased at a comparison having been made 
between the person, character, and work of 
Christ and those of his venerated sage. Such 
a thing, said he, should not have been done 
by any means. Christianity is a very small 
affair, and the cross, though in external form 
extending- in all directions, thus assuming 
that it is designed to embrace the whole 
world, is absurd. As to the doctrine con¬ 
nected with it,- it can never endure the test 
of ages, as in the case of the Confucian. He 
was told that Jesus was the Son of God, that 
He came down from heaven for the highest, 
holiest, and most glorious of all purposes, 
whilst Confucius was only a man and a sage, 
like many of a similar character in all parts of 
the world; but at this saying he became 
violent in the extreme, and replied, ‘ If you 
say anything of Confucius, I assure you I 
would rather go to hell with him than with 
Jesus to heaven.’ The doctrine of the cross, 
indeed, which, was a stumbling-block to the 
Jew, and folly to the Greek, is both to the 
Chinese. They see the outward transaction, 
but cannot penetrate into the depths of its 
meaning; they behold its shame, but are 
blind to its glory.” During three hundred 
years the Jesuits have laboured in China, but 
they never attempted to circulate the Scrip¬ 


tures in the vernacular. The British and 
Foreign Bible Society, through the media of 
the congregational missionaries, accomplished 
that work. Drs. Morrison and Milne published 
their Bible under the society’s auspices thirty - 
six years ago. Dr. Morrison had previously 
issued portions of the book. In 1835 Drs. 
Medhurst and Gutzlaff, aided by Mr. Morrison 
(son of the great missionary), issued a Chinese 
New Testament, more adapted for circulation 
than that previously published by Drs. Mor¬ 
rison and Milne. In 1850 another version of 
the New Testament, still improved, was 
adopted by the Bible Society. In 1852 the 
society’s translation of the Old Testament 
was completed. In 1847 the London Mis¬ 
sionary Society sent out a cylinder printing- 
press to Shanghai, and towards the object had 
in view in so doing the Bible Society bestowed 
£1000. The most recent effort on a large 
scale was that of sending a million copies of 
the New Testament to China. The origin 
of this movement, afterwards happily accom¬ 
plished, was the publication of a letter in the 
papers by the Rev. J. Angell James, congre¬ 
gational minister of Birmingham, to whom it 
was suggested by Thomas Thompson, Esq., 
of Poundisford Park, Somerset. The London 
Religious Tract Society has also put forth its 
giant hand to the helq> of China. Various 
interesting tracts have been published by that 
society, and vast numbers placed at the 
disposal of the missionaries. In this work 
the excellent Bishop of Victoria, who super¬ 
intends the missionaries in China connected 
with the English Established Church has 
taken an appropriate and active part. 

The moral condition of the people upon 
whom these evangelical instrumentalities are 
brought to bear is as unhallowed as their 
religious theories are erroneous. The emi¬ 
nent missionary who led the van of Pro¬ 
testant effort for this people thus expresses 
himself concerning them :—“ The good traits 
in the Chinese character are mildness and 
urbanity; a wish to show that their conduct 
is reasonable, and generally a willingness to 
yield to what appears to be so; docility, in¬ 
dustry, subordination of juniors ; and respect 
for the aged and parents, which Confucius 
principally enforces. These are virtues of 
public opinion, which are, in particular cases, 
rather a show than a reality. On the other 
hand, the Chinese are specious, but insincere; 
jealous, envious, and distrustful in a high 
degree. There is amongst them a consider¬ 
able prevalence of Sadducean and rather athe¬ 
istical spirit, such as one would naturally 
expect from a people who feel not that sense 
of divine authority, nor that reverence for the 
divine majesty and goodness, which in sacred 





222 


HISTORY OR THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XI. 


Scripture is denominated ‘ tlie fear of God.’ 
Conscience has few checks but the law of the 
land and a little frigid ratiocination, on the 
fitness of things, which is seldom found effec¬ 
tual to restrain, when the selfish and vicious 
propensities of our nature may be indulged 
with present impunity. The Chinese are 
generally selfish, cold-blooded, and inhu¬ 
mane.” * The learned divine had not ac¬ 
quired so much experience as has since been 
gleaned of their habits, or he would not have 
borne any testimony to their gentleness. The 
missionaries of the London Missionary Society, 
which the doctor represented, were, during 
the Chinese contest wdiich is waging while 
these pages are going through the press, the 
objects of a most cowardly attempt at assas¬ 
sination. The ladies and children of the mis¬ 
sion, more especially, suffered severely from 
the poison which their Chinese attendants in¬ 
sinuated into their food. The conduct of the 
Chinese at Canton, Hong-Kong, Singapore, 
and Borneo, during the period referred to, 
was as cruel, treacherous, and remorseless as 
that of the Bengal mutineers in the mutiny 
of 1857. In their own internecine wars they 
are barbarously vindictive, as the great re¬ 
bellion still raging in the empire has proved 
on a large scale. No people treat criminals 
with greater severity, or inflict torture with 
more eagerness. 

Female infanticide is another form taken 
by Chinese cruelty. The government carts 
go about the streets of Pekin to collect 
the dead infants cast out into the streets 
at night by their callous-hearted parents;f No 
investigation is ever instituted, but the bodies 
are removed to a common burial-pit outside 
the city. Upon this procedure the Roman 
Catholic missionaries have been accustomed to 
attend, in the hope of saving some infant in 
which life is not extinct, and, if possible, 
to restore it to health, and bring it up in 
their religion. The Pekin government con¬ 
nives at infanticide. On these occasions 
horrible scenes are presented. Before the 
carts go their rounds, the dogs and pigs 
of the city are let loose, and they are dis¬ 
turbed by these vehicles while preying upon 
the outcast children, some with life still in 
them. It is calculated that nine thousand 
infants perish annually in the streets of Pekin, 
or are murdered, and flung out to be devoured 
by the swine and dogs, or removed by the 
police carts to a common burial.£ At Amoy 
,; it is a general practice to drown a large 
proportion of the female children.” § The 
Times’ correspondent, in 1857, bears a pain¬ 
ful testimony to the horrid practice of infan- 

* Dr. Morrison. f Barrow. 

X. Barrow.. \ Dr. Gutzlaff. 


ticide at Shanghai:—“ 0 Vice-consul Harvey! 
doctvs utriusque linguae ! to whom the man¬ 
ners and the language of China are even as 
the manners and the language of Paris or of 
London, tell me what means that more than 
usually pestilential stench! It seems to 
radiate from that decaying pepper-box-shaped 
tower, which, although not twenty feet high, 
we must, by the courtesy of China, call a 
pagoda. Undismayed, the energetic vice- 
consul, who sometimes acts as guide, philo¬ 
sopher, and friend, and expatiates with me 
over this maze, advances through a vapour 
so thick that I wonder the Chinese do not 
cut it into blocks, and use it for manure, 
and at a distance of five yai’ds from the 
building puffed hard at his cheroot, and said, 

‘That is the baby-tower.’—‘The-?’ 

said I, inquiringly.—' The baby-tower. Look 
through that rent in the stonework—not too 
close, or the stream of effluvia may kill you. 
You see a mound of wisps of bamboo-straw? 
It seems to move, but it is only the crawling 
of the worms. Sometimes a tiny leg or arm, 
or a little fleshless bone, protrudes from the 
straw. The tower is not so full now as I 
have seen it; they must have cleared it out 
recently.’—‘ Is this a cemetery or a slaugh - 
terhouse ? ’—‘ The Chinese say it is only a 
tomb. Coffins are too dear, and the pea¬ 
santry are poor. When a child dies the 
parents wrap it round with bamboo, throw it 
in at that window, and all is done. When 
the tower is full the proper authorities burn 
the heap, and spread the ashes over the 
land.’ There is no inquiry, no check: the 
parent has power to kill or to save. Nature 
speaks in the heart of a Chinese mother as in 
the breast of an English matron; but want 
and shame sometimes speak louder still.” 

At Shanghai there is a foundling hospital, 
which, it is to be presumed, is a device of the 
government to check infanticide. The writer 
last quoted, upon whose authority we learn 
the fact, does not, however, say wdiether the 
institution receives female children, or, if 
received, whether they are preserved. “ There 
is a foundling hospital in the Chinese city, 
with a cradle outside the door, and a hollow 
bamboo above it. Strike a blow upon the 
bamboo, and the cradle is drawn inside. If 
it contain an infant, it is taken and cared for, 
and no questions asked.” 

The cruelty of the Chinese in religious 
persecution is at variance with the accounts 
generally given of their tolerance, and in 
some sort a contradiction to the indifference 
with wdiich they affect to regard all religious 
controversies. The Jesuits have been fre¬ 
quently exposed to great dangers, and have 
suffered severe injuries. The writer just re- 



Chap, XT.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


223 


ferred to, describing’ Hangchow, remarks :— 
“ Annals of martyrdom tell still of the mas¬ 
sacre of eight hundred Christians at Hang¬ 
chow. During the last war many of our 
kidnapped sailors were sent here as to a 
place of security, and butchered after a mock 
trial.” During the earlier stages of the great 
rebellion the rebels not only demolished 
temples as the abodes of idols, but slew their 
frequenters as idolaters. 

Slavery is practised, and that of the worst 
kind, within certain limits. It would appear 
that the slavery into which a parent may sell 
his female child is some check to infanticide, 
and leaves the supply for “the baby-tower” 
less horribly abundant. “ There is also a 
system of domestic slavery in China. At an 
early age a child is worth dollars (a father 
or mother may for money delegate their own 
absolute power—delegate without losing it); 
for although a father may have sold his son 
to a stranger, or although a mother may 
have sold her daughter to prostitution (and 
concubines in China are only thus to be 
obtained), the duty from child to parent 
remains unimpaired, and is strictly performed. 
The incentives thus offered by Mammon, and 
the alternative proffered by native charity, 
may save lives that would otherwise be 
destroyed. But this baby-tower is a terrible 
institution; it stands there, close to the walls 
of a ci’owded city, an intrusive invitation to 
infanticide.” 

The whole people are gamblers. It is 
strange that a race so matter-of-fact and 
business-like should be so, but in every situa¬ 
tion of life, and on an infinite variety of occa¬ 
sions, opportunity is sought for this propensity, 
so destructive to the mind and the body, so 
ruinous to the circumstances and the cha¬ 
racter. The opium dens are the chief resorts 
of the gamblers; there every appurtenance 
for the amusement, and every convenience 
for gratifying the passion, exist. The fol¬ 
lowing is a description of one of these dens 
of infamy and ruin in a great city :—• 

“At Ningpo,” writes the special corre¬ 
spondent of the Times, “ I accepted an invi¬ 
tation from the Rev. Mr. Russell, the Church 
of England missionary priest, and the Rev. 
Mr. Edkins, of the London Mission at Shan¬ 
ghai, to visit the opium dens of Ningpo city. 
Commander Dew, of the Nimrod, and several 
of his officers, accompanied us. I had seen 
the opium-eaters of Smyrna and Constanti¬ 
nople,. and the hasheesh-smokers of Constan¬ 
tine, and I was prepared for emaciated forms 
and trembling limbs. I recollected buying a 
taboosh in the bazaars of Smyrna from a 
young Moslem, whose palsied hand and dotard 
head could not count the coins I offered him. 


I remembered the hasheesh-smokers of Con¬ 
stantine, who were to be seen and heard every 
afternoon at the bottom of that abyss which 
yawns under the ‘Adultress’s Rock,’—lean, 
fleshless Arabs, smoking their little pipes of 
hemp-seed, chanting, and swaying their 
skeleton forms to and fro, shrieking to the 
wild echoes of the chasm, then sinking ex¬ 
hausted under the huge cactus,—sights and 
sounds of saturnalia in purgatory. 

“ The Chinese exhibition was sufficiently 
disgusting, but was otherwise quite a failure. 
These opium dens are ordinary Chinese cot¬ 
tages, with a room about twelve feet square, 
furnished with a bed, a table, and a sofa. In 
the first we entered three men sat upon the 
bed, and two upon the sofa. There was the 
opium pipe, the lamp, and the small porcelain 
cup of treacle-looking opium. One of the 
customers takes the pipe and the lamp, then 
dips a pin into the opium, turns it round and 
round till he has the proper quantity of the 
jellified drug, inserts the pin in the pipe, ap¬ 
plies the pipe to the flame of the lamp, and at 
the same time draws up the vapour by two 
or three long inhalations—not whiffs, for he 
draws it into his lungs; then he passes on 
the pipe, the opium being consumed, and 
gradually lets the vapour slowly return, 
through his mouth and his nose. 

“ The members of this convivial society 
were good-humoured and communicative. 
One was a chair coolie, a second was a petty 
tradesman, a third was a runner in a man¬ 
darin’s yamun ; they were all of that class 
of urban population which is just above the 
lowest. They were, however, neither emaci¬ 
ated nor infirm. The chair coolie was a 
sturdy fellow, well capable of taking his 
share in the porterage of a sixteen-stone 
mandarin, the runner seemed well able to 
run, and the tradesman, who said he was 
thirty-eight years old (say thirty-seven, for 
the Chinese commence to count their age 
nine months earlier than we do), was re¬ 
marked by all of us to be a singularly young- 
looking man for that age. He had smoked 
opium for seven years. As we passed from 
the opium dens we went into a Chinese tea- 
garden—a dirty paved court, with some small 
trees and flowers in flower-pots,—and a very 
emaciated and yawning proprietor presented 
himself. ‘ The man has destroyed himself 
by opium-smoking,’ said Mr. Russell. The 
man, being questioned, declared that he had 
never smoked an opium pipe in his life—a 
bad shot, at which no one was more amused 
than the reverend gentleman who fired it. I 
only take the experiment for what it is worth. 
There must be very many most lamentable 
specimens of the effects of indulgence in this 



224 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XI. 


vicious practice, although we did not happen 
to see any of them that morning. They are 
not, however, so universal, nor even so com¬ 
mon, as travellers who write in support of 
some thesis, or who are not above truckling 
to popular prejudices in England, are pleased 
to say they are. 

“ But if our visit was a failure in one 
respects, it was fully instructive in another. 
In the first house we visited no man spent 
on an average less than eighty cash a day 
on his opium pipe. One man said he spent 
a hundred and twenty. The chair coolie 
spends eighty, and his average earnings are 
a hundred cash a day. English physicians, 
unconnected with the missionary societies, 
have assured me that the coolie opium-smoker 
dies, not from opium, but from starvation. 
If lie starves himself for his pipe, we need 
not ask what happens to his family. No 
earthly power can stop opium-smoking in 
China; but if the people of England are 
earnest in wishing to stop the English trade 
in it, nothing is easier than to do so by far 
less of self-sacrifice than the opium-smoker 
would be obliged to exercise. Let the old 
ladies give up tea, and the young ladies give 
up silk, and the thing is done. If the Chinese 
had again to pay for opium in silver they 
would soon grow it all at home, and look 
sharp after the foreign smuggler. At present 
the trade is as open and as unrestrained in 
all the cities of China as the sale of hot-cross 
buns on Good Friday is in the streets of 
London. 

“ The culture of opium certainly is not con¬ 
fined to the province of Yunnan. Any one 
who penetrates into the amphitheatre of 
mountains which bounds the Ningpo plain 
will see valleys upon valleys of fine rich 
land covered with poppies. The official 
reports deplore this, but cannot stop it. The 
estimate is that sixty thousand chests of 
opium are annually grown in China. This 
opium is purer and stronger than the Indian 
opium, but, for want of skill in the prepara¬ 
tion, and patience in keeping, it has an acrid 
flavour.” 

The means prescribed by this lively writer 
for extinguishing opium-smoldng in China 
would have no such effect. He admits that 
instead of being imported, as it now chiefly is, 
at all events in its superior qualities, it would 
be grown in China. A market exists in the 
empire, and the Chinese are at last sagacious 
enough to see that it will be supplied some¬ 
how—either from India in return for tea and 
silk, or by home production. The probabili¬ 
ties are, that the practice would be extended 
by the successful prohibition of the trade. 
A cheaper opium would rule the market. 


which could be more easily procured, and 
larger quantities would be consumed, as the 
grand impediment to a largely-increased 
demand is the expense. From the instances 
given by the writer just quoted, it is obvious 
that the temptation to opium-smoking is 
yielded to, even Avhen a poor man is 
obliged to expend four-fifths of his means 
in gratifying it. The tone of the Times 
correspondent tends to leave the impression 
that the evils of opium-smoking, physical and 
moral, are less than they are in England sup¬ 
posed to be; and as this gentleman is the 
latest eye-witness, his testimony is likely to 
have great weight, more especially as he is 
an acute observer. He attributes the mis¬ 
understanding to those who write to please 
certain classes in England: this is an indirect 
allusion to the missionaries. It is not, how¬ 
ever, to them that any exaggerated impres¬ 
sions in the public mind at home, if any such 
exist, are to be attributed; but to the official 
reports of the officers of the Chinese empire, 
upon which the missionaries have perhaps 
relied too implicitly. The medical mission¬ 
aries sent out by the English and American 
Congregationalists will probably throw light 
upon the subject: their present belief is, that 
opium-smoking is one of the most demoralising 
and ruinous practices known to the eastern 
world. The following Chinese official report 
may convey an exaggerated view of the evil, 
but it at all events shows the impossibility of 
suppressing the practice, and therefore the 
demand for the commodity, by legal enact¬ 
ment in China, in India, or in England. The 
following is a memorial to the emperor from 
one of the censors: it corresponds to a report 
in English official usage:— 

“ I have learned that those who smoke 
opium, and eventually become its victims, 
have a periodical longing for it, which can 
only be assuaged by the application of the 
drug at the regular time. If they cannot 
obtain it when that daily period arrives, their 
limbs become debilitated, a discharge of rheum 
takes place from the eyes and nose, and they 
are altogether unequal to any exertion; but 
with a few whiffs their spirits and strength 
are immediately restored in a most surprising 
manner. This opium becomes, to opium- 
smokers, their very life; and when they are 
seized and brought before magistrates, they 
will sooner suffer a severe chastisement than 
inform against those who sell it. I had the 
curiosity to visit the opium-smoker in his 
heaven: and certainly it is a most fearful 
sight, although, perhaps, not so degrading to 
the eye as the drunkard from spirits, lowered 
to the level of the brute, and wallowing in 
his filth. The idiotic smile, and death-like 



Chap. XI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


225 


stupor, however, of the opium-debauchee, has 
something far more awful to the gaze than 
the bestiality of the other. . . . The rooms 
where they sit and smoke are surrounded by 
wooden couches, with places for the head to 
rest upon, and generally a side room is devoted 
to gambling. The pipe is a reed of about an 
inch in diameter, and the aperture in the bowl 
for the admission of the opium is not larger 
than a pin’s head. The drug is prepared by 
boiling and evaporation to the consistence of 
treacle, and a very small portion is sufficient 
to charge it, one or two whiffs being the 
utmost that can be inhaled from a single pipe, 
and the smoke is taken into the lungs as from 
the hookah in India. On a beginner, one or 
two pipes will have an effect; but an old 
stager will continue smoking for hours. At 
the head of each couch is placed a small lamp, 
as fire must be held to the drug during the 
process of inhaling ; and from the difficulty of 
filling and properly lighting the pipe, there 
is generally a person who waits upon the 
smoker to perform the office. A few days of 
this fearful luxury, when taken to excess, will 
give a pallid and haggard look to the face; 
and a few months, or even weeks, will change 
the strong and healthy man into little better 
than an idiot skeleton. The pain they suffer 
when deprived of the drug, after long habit, 
no language can explain; and it is only when, 
to a certain degree, under its influence, that 
their faculties are alive. In all the houses 
devoted to their ruin, these infatuated people 
may be seen at nine in the evening; some 
entering half distracted to feed the craving 
appetite they have been obliged to subdue 
during the day; others laughing and talking 
wildly under the effects of the first pipe; 
whilst the couches around are filled by dif¬ 
ferent occupants, who lie in a state of languor, 
with an idiotic smile on their countenances, 
too much under the influence of the drug to 
care for passing events, and fast merging to 
the wished-for consummation. The last scene 
in this tragic play is generally a room in the 
rear of the building, a species of dead-house, 
where lie stretched those who have passed 
into the state of insensibility the opium- 
smoker madly seeks—an emblem of the long 
sleep to which he is blindly hurrying.” 

The personal appearance of the Chinese 
men of the lower classes is well known in the 
lai’ger seaports of England, especially in 
London. Among the genteeler grades of 
life very great obesity in a man is a trait of 
beauty; whereas a woman must be very thin 
indeed to be accepted as agreeable, and her 
feet must be very small. Cruel methods are 
adopted to cramp the feet of female infants, 
so that women in the better walks of life 

VOL. i. 


literally walk upon their heels, and have a 
hobbling and mincing gait, which the gentle¬ 
men exceedingly admire, comparing it, in the 
language of “ the flowery land,” to “ a willow 
shaken by the breeze.” In the northern parts 
of the empire, the people are frequently very 
lair, and are seldom of that dark yellow com¬ 
plexion which the mariners bear who come to 
London in English ships from Canton and the 
other open ports of China, or from Singapore 
and Malacca. The better classes of females 
have, in the more elevated portions of the 
country, and in the higher latitudes, delicate, 
and sometimes beautiful, complexions. Euro¬ 
peans have been frequently captivated with 
the beauty of the Chinese ladies. The Chi¬ 
nese women are industrious; but although 
industry is also a characteristic of Chinese 
men, they often, inconsistently, devolve upon 
their women the chief labour. 

Their manners and customs are extremely 
antithetical to ours. The law restricts mar¬ 
riage within so many limitations, as neither 
to favour the happiness nor morality of the 
people. Widows have much power and in¬ 
fluence : the government does not favour 
their marriage a second time, but the law in 
this matter is often evaded. Their marriage 
ceremonies bear a strong resemblance to 
those of Western Asia, but have some pecu¬ 
liarities. The funeral rites of China are very 
imposing and impressive. White is the 
colour of mourning, and is worn by relatives 
and friends on these occasions. The women 
lament over the corpse with a cry which 
some writers have compared to that of the 
Irish on like occasions; but there is no resem¬ 
blance : the cry of the Chinese is a dissonant 
yell raised by the female relatives; that of the 
Irish is musical but wild, and is “ keened ” 
professionally by women who are accustomed 
to conduct these laments for the dead. The 
funeral processions are attended by music: 
the bagpipe, which resembles the Scottish 
instrument of that name, predominates, and a 
sort of drum is struck at intervals, as in 
a military funeral in Europe. The places of 
burial are picturesque, retired, and care¬ 
fully tended. The tombs are shaped like 
the Greek letter omega; some writers say to 
intimate “ the last,” but there is no evidence 
that the Chinese are aware of any such sig¬ 
nificance being attached to the form of their 
tombs. 

The public festivals are numerous, but 
description of them would require a space too 
extended for a subsidiary portion of this work. 

Visits of ceremony are much more formal 
among the Chinese than among any other 
people, and the ceremonies observed are 
graceful and elegant. Visiting papers in- 

G G 




226 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XL 


stead of cards are used; these are tastefully 
decorated, and when opened are of large 
dimensions. Tea is served on these occa¬ 
sions as a refreshment, a little of the fine leaf 
being placed in a handsome porcelain cup of 
small size, and boiling water poured on it; 
neither sugar nor milk is used, and the decoc¬ 
tion thus produced is refreshing and palat¬ 
able, the aroma being most grateful. Small 
trays, with cakes and sweetmeats, are at the 
same time presented. Visits are given and 
received with every token of courtesy, and a 
degree of refinement for which Europeans 
would be indisposed to give this quaint people 
credit. The apparel worn on these occasions 
is extremely rich, and often very tasteful. 

The long loose oriental dress is generally of 
silk, of some light colour, gaily ornamented; 
a spencer is worn over this, consisting of rich 
silk of a dark blue or purple colour. Dragons 
and other singular devices, worked with gold 
thread, decorate these articles of raiment, 
which are most expensive. The general 
costume is similar in form, but of much 
cheaper material. In winter the dress is too 
loose and wide to be comfortable, and the 
attempts in severe weather to improve the 
costume in this respect are clumsy and in¬ 
convenient, impeding exercise: the legs are 
especially protected at that season with cloth 
boots, which are worn high, the soles of very 
thick white leather, which are preserved of 
that colour by the use of whitening. 

The habits of food are very remarkable, 
so far as their customs in this respect 
have been ascertained: in most places, 
but especially at Canton, the tavern-keepers 
are forbid to entertain Europeans. This 
edict of the government is at the insti¬ 
gation of the Chinese merchants of that 
city, Avho have fostered a spirit of exclu¬ 
siveness in eve^f Avay possible. The Chi¬ 
nese of the better classes are fond of what 
is called “ good living,” and are ingenious 
and very extravagant in their culinafy regime. 
The cooks are very clever. The Times' 
correspondent, in one of his letters written at 
the close of 1857, affirms that in the culinary 
art the Chinese hold a middle place between 
the French and English; but if his own 
account of their performances be correct, 
their achievements must surpass those of the 
first artistes in Paris. The poorer classes in 
the large towns are addicted to voracious 
feeding, and there is no description of food 
too coarse or unclean for their morbid appe¬ 
tites. The swine and dogs which have pos¬ 
sibly devoured female infants in the streets of 
Pekin in the morning, may be slaughtered 
for food the same day. Rats, mice, and other 
vermin are in request; and there is no crea¬ 


ture, however filthy or hideous, on land or in 
the waters, that may not contribute to a 
repast. The Times' correspondent commu¬ 
nicated an amusing and graphic description 
of the character and quality of a respectable 
Chinese dinner, which was published in that 
journal in February, 1858. It is so striking 
a picture of the mode and sumptuousness of 
a Chinese feast, that it ought not to be con¬ 
fined to the pages of a periodical, however 
eminent. According to that gentleman, the 
use of the knife is regarded in China as a 
barbarism which once prevailed among the 
customs of that country, but which, owing to 
the advancement of civilisation, had been 
abandoned for “ the chopsticks.” The argu¬ 
ment upon which this change is affirmed to be 
an improvement is, that persons ought not to 
sit down to table to cut up carcasses, but to 
eat: the carving processes are therefore con¬ 
fined to the kitchen, and food is sent up to 
table fit for immediate use. An Englishman’s 
mode of eating is supposed to resemble that 
of the savages of Formosa, and the food is 
presented to him in a condition fit only for 
men “ who are in a state of nature,” to whom 
civilisation and its conveniences and refine¬ 
ments are unknown. When native merchants 
at the five ports invite Europeans to a ban¬ 
quet, it is regarded as a matter of politeness 
to serve it up, as far as possible, according to 
the national customs of the guest; henco 
Chinese diet is never seen by Europeans, 
except as they look at coolies and servants 
eating their rice, perhaps mingled with 
vegetables, and seasoned; or as they see 
the beggars in the streets drinking their dog 
broth. The gentleman whom we are about 
to quote invited a European party to the 
“ Hotel of the Imperial Academician,” at 
Ningpo, to a dinner prepared in Chinese 
fashion. The following is his own account of 
the feast:— 

“ The salon was more like a slice of a 
verandah than a room: its front was open to 
the narrow street. The table was laid with 
the preliminary trifles provocatives to the 
coming repast. There was a small square 
tower built up of slices from the breast of 
a goose, a tumulus of thin square pieces of 
tripe, hard-boiled eggs of a dark speckled 
colour, which had been preserved in lime, and 
whose delicacy is supposed to be proportioned 
to their antiquity; berries and other vegetable 
substances preserved in vinegar, a curious 
pile of some shell-fish, to me unknown, which 
had been taken from its shell and cut in thin 
slices, prawns in their natural, or rather in 
their artificial red state, ground nuts, ginger, 
and candied fruits. Everything was excellent 
of its kind, and the unknown shell-fish par- 



Chap. XI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


227 


ticularlv good in flavour. The first dish was, 
in accordance with all proper precedent, the 
birds’-nest soup. I believe some of us were 
rather surprised not to see the birds’ nests 
bobbing about in the bowl, and to detect no 
flavour of sticks or feathers or moss. What 
these birds’ nests are in their natural state I 
do not know, for I have no book on ornitho¬ 
logy, and have never been birds’-nesting in 
the Straits. Their existence at table is appa¬ 
rent in a thick mucilage at the surface of the 
soup. Below this you come to a white liquid 
and chickens’ flesh. It Avas objected that 
this AA 7 as a fade and tasteless delicacy. But 
remark that these two basins are only the 
suns of little systems. The same hands that 
brought them in scattered also an entourage 
of still smaller basins. These are sauces of 
every flavour and strength, from crushed 
fresh chilies to simple soy. Watch the China¬ 
man : hoAV cunningly he compounds. ‘ But, 
sir, you do not mean to say that you ate 
this mucilage with your chopsticks?’—‘No, 
madam, we scooped it with our saucers, and 
ate it with our porcelain spoons.’ 

“ The next course was expected with a very 
nervous excitement: it was a stew of sea- 
slugs. As I have seen them at Macao they 
are white, but as served at Ningpo they are 
green. I credit the ‘ Imperial Academician’s’ 
as the orthodox dish. They are slippery, and 
very difficult to be handled by inexperienced 
chopsticks; bxrt they are most succulent and 
pleasant food, not at all unlike in flavour to 
the green fat of the turtle. During the dis¬ 
cussion of this dish our Chinese master of the 
ceremonies solemnly interposed. We Avere 
neglecting the rudiments of politeness. No 
one had yet offered to intrude one of these 
sleek and savoury delicacies, deeply rolled in 
sauce, into the mouth of his neighbour. 
Efforts Avere made to retrieve the barbarian 
honour, but with no great success; for the 
slugs were evasive, and the proffered mouth¬ 
ful Avas not always Avelcome. The next dish 
was sturgeon skull-cap—rare and gelatinous, 
but I think not so peculiar in its flavour as 
to excuse the death of seA 7 eral royal fish. 
This dish being taken from its brazen, lamp- 
heated stand, was succeeded by a stew of 
shark fins and pork. The shark fins Avere 
boiled to so soft a consistency that they might 
have been turbot fins. Next in order came a 
soup composed of balls of crab. I have 
tasted this better prepared at Macao. It 
assumes there the form of a \*ery capital salad, 
made of crab and cooked vegetables. Mean- 
Avhile the ministering boys flew and fluttered 
round the table, for ever filling the little wine 
glasses Avith hot wine from the metal pots. 
There were three kinds: the strong samsliu 


for very occasional ‘spike;’ the medicated 
wine for those who, having once experienced 
its many flavours, chose to attempt it a second 
time ; and the ordinary wine, Avhich is so like 
sherry negus, that any one who can drink 
that preparation may be very Avell satisfied 
with its Chinese substitute. The Chinaman 
had drunk with each of the convives almost 
in English fashion, but in strict obedience to 
the Chinese rites, and xmgallantly challenging 
the male part of the company first. 

“ The porcelain bowls in their courses, like 
the stars in their courses, continued in un¬ 
pausing succession. The next named Avas 
‘ The Bice of the Genii,’ meaning, I suppose, 
the food of the genii, for there AA r as no rice in 
the composition. It was a steAv of plums and 
preserved fruits, whose SAveets and acids Avere 
an agreeable counterpoise to the fish and meat 
dishes already taken. ThenAve had a dish of 
a boiled hairy vegetable, very like that stringy 
endive which they call in France ‘ Barbe de 
Capuchin-.' then steAved mushrooms from 
Manchuria. Then we relapsed into another 
sei'ies of fish and meat entrees, Avherein vege¬ 
tables of the vegetable-marrow species, and a 
root somewhat betAveen a horse-radish and 
a turnip, were largely used. There was a 
bowl of ducks’ tongues, Avhich are esteemed 
an exquisite Chinese dainty. We were pick¬ 
ing these little niorceaux out Avith our chop¬ 
sticks (at which we had uoav become adepts, 
for the knack is easily acqAiired), Avhen Ave Avere 
startled by a loud Chinese ‘ Eh Yaw.' This 
imprudent exclamation dreAV our attention to 
the open front of our apartment. The oppo¬ 
site house, distant perhaps across the street 
about eight feet from us, presented the spec¬ 
tacle of a small crowded playhouse seen from 
the stage: it was densely croAvded with half- 
naked Chinamen. They Avere packed in a 
mass upon the gallery, and they were squatted 
upon the roof. I believe they had paid for 
their places. They had sat orderly and silent 
all this time to see the barbarians dining. 
We might have dropped the grass blinds, but 
it Avould have been ill-natured; the Chinese 
did us no harm, and the blinds would have 
kept out the air, so Ave went on eating, like 
Greemvich pensioners or Bluecoat boys, in 
public. So Ave continued our attentions to 
the ducks’ tongues, and passed on to deers’ 
tendons—a royal dish. These deers’ tendons 
come, or ought to come, from Tartary. The 
emperors make presents of them to their 
favoured subjects. Yeh’s father at Canton 
recently received some from his sovereign, 
and gave a feast in honour of the present. 
These must have been boiled for a week to- 
bring them doAvn to the state of softness in 
AAdiich they came up to us. Exhausted, or 




228 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XI. 


rather repleted nature, could no more. When 
a stew of what the Chinese call the ear shell-fish 
was placed upon the table, no one could carry 
his experiments further. An untouched dish 
is the signal for the close of the feast. The 
maitre-d’hdtel protested that he had twenty 
more courses of excellent rarity, hut our 
Chinese master of the ceremonies was impe¬ 
rative, and so were we. Plain boiled rice, 
the rice of Szechuen, was brought round in 
little bowls, and of this we all ate plentifully. 
Confectionery and candied fruits, and acan¬ 
thus berries steeped in spirits, followed, and 
then tea. No uncooked fruit is allowed at a 
Chinese dinner. They have a proverb that 
fruit is feathers in the morning, silk at noon, 
and lead at night. I was assured by compe¬ 
tent authority that nothing had been placed 
upon the table which was not in the highest 
degree wholesome, nutritious, and light of 
digestion. We certainly so found it; for, 
adjourning to the house of one of the convives, 
we made an excellent supper that night. 

“ The master of the ceremonies now looked 
round him with a swollen and satisfied air, 
and —eruscit mons ; from his mouth came 
forth a loud sonorous noise, which a certain 
dramatist has not scrupled to bedeck with 
knighthood, and to christen Sir Toby. He, 
the Chinaman, seemed proud of his perform¬ 
ance. We sat uncomfortable on our chairs, 
did not know which way to look, and some of 
us would have run away had there been any¬ 
where to run to. Some one who could speak 
his language gave him a hint which made 
him declare emphatically that it would he an 
insult to the founder of the feast if this testi¬ 
mony was not loudly given to the sufficiency 
of the entertainment and the pletion of the 
guests. It was with some difficulty that he 
was prevailed upon to turn over this chapter 
of the hook of rites. And thus ended our 
Chinese dinner. Before we entered our 
chairs we walked through the whole esta¬ 
blishment, saw the reservoirs for preserving 
all the curious creatures we had been eating, 
and examined all the processes of preparation, 
and the casseroles and ovens in which other 
dinners were then being prepared. Every¬ 
thing was as clean and as regular as in a 
first-rate European establishment. Of course 
I do not affirm that this dinner was to 
our tastes, but it was one to which educa¬ 
tion and habit might very reasonably incline 
a people. It was eminently light and digest¬ 
ible, and, like the Chinese themselves, very 
reasonable and defensible upon philosophic 
grounds, but somewhat monotonous, tedious, 
and insipid. We must recollect, however, 
that the higher classes in China never take 
exercise, and are necessarily a sedentary and I 


dyspeptic class of feeders. It was unani¬ 
mously resolved that the bill of fare ought to 
be preserved, and the dinner described; for, 
although several travellers have given the 
forms and ceremonies of a Chinese state 
dinner, and have indulged in a general 
jocoseness at the strangeness of its materials, 
no one has ever yet taken the trouble to 
inform himself as to what the dishes before 
him really did contain.” 

The amusements of the Chinese are more 
varied and more frequently enjoyed than 
might be supposed of a people having a 
reputation for gravity. Juggling, games 
of chance, archery, and what appears to Eu¬ 
ropeans a puerile occupation, kite-flying, are 
the principle of these. The ingemiity dis¬ 
played in this diversion is surprising, the 
ldtes being in the form of birds, fishes, rep¬ 
tiles, and monster insects, copied from nature 
as to form and colour with astonishing exact¬ 
ness. The higher the grade of life, the less 
given are the people to athletic exercises. 
Gentlemen in the very highest ranks are fond 
of archery. 

The literature and language of China have 
engaged the attention of Europeans. The 
French, Germans, Russians, and other conti¬ 
nental nations, although less interested by 
commerce and connexion than the English, 
have given it more consideration. The study 
may be said to have found encouragement in 
India only contemporaneously with the mis¬ 
sionary enterprise. The labours of l)r. Mor¬ 
rison, and the impulse given to religious 
efforts for China on the part of Christian 
persons in England, laid the foundation for 
our present acquaintance with the language 
and literature of that country. It is the 
custom to describe the language as monosyl¬ 
labic, but some recent writers maintain that 
it is less so than it has been represented to 
be. It is remarkable for the number of its 
characters, and the paucity of its vocal 
sounds. The characters of the language 
were originally pictures of ideas, but their 
original simplicity has been forgotten in a 
great measure, as they became in course of 
time abbreviated or enlarged for convenience 
sake. The want of an alphabet compels the 
use of cumbrous modes of expressing foreign 
words, very embarrassing to the European 
student of Chinese, and to the native scholars 
who hold foreign intercourse, or have to 
translate or interpret from any strange lan¬ 
guage into their own. The figurative style 
both of speech and writing is far more exag¬ 
gerated and much less elegant than in the 
languages of western Asia. There is fre¬ 
quently a vulgar coarseness in the figures of 
speech used by Chinese scholars and gentle- 





Chap. XI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


229 


men repulsive to Europeans of any taste. 
Dr. Mor rison, tlie missionary, thus expressed 
Ins sense of the difficulty of the language 
Loth to natives and foreigners :—“ A child in 
China learns to speak its mother tongue as 
early as a child in England, hut a Chinese 
hoy does not learn to write it with the same 
ease. It is far more difficult for an English¬ 
man to learn to speak, read, and write Chinese 
than to make these attainments in any other 
language. An English boy, who knows the 
grammar of his own language, and has a 
smattering of Latin, if he goes to French, 
Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese, finds the 
letters the same, nearly with the same power, 
the method of writing them similar, the 
sound of words directing to the combination 
of the letters, and in every half a dozen words 
he find one which he knew before, with some 
slight modification ; but if he goes to Chinese 
he find no letters, nothing to communicate 
sounds, no similarity, the method radically 
different, and not one word like what he has 
known before, and when he knows the pro¬ 
nunciation of words and sentences the sound 
does not at all direct to the character which 
is the sign of the same idea.” 

The literature of the Chinese language is 
varied and extensive. Every department of 
literature known to Europeans has its corre¬ 
sponding branch in the language of China. 
Their mythology is ancient and peculiar. 
Their sacred wi'itings are of the age of Con¬ 
fucius (five hundred years previous to the 
Christian era), that sage himself being the 
chief of this class of authors. Confucius is 
the great prophet and teacher of the nation, 
and his maxims are laws. He is as much 
followed by the higher classes as Buddha by 
the middle ranks. Many of the maxims of 
Confucius are beautiful, but they are evi¬ 
dently derived from the Jewish Scriptures, 
and are easily distinguishable from those of a 
Chinese origin. The great mass of the pre¬ 
cepts of the followers and expositors of Con¬ 
fucius, as well as of the philosopher himself, 
are such as a shrewd worldly wisdom would 
suggest, and have no higher motive than 
convenience, personal advantage, or the love 
of fame. 

Education is encouraged by the state, and 
approved of by the people. The character 
of the education given is such as to increase 
the national egotism, to teach the people at 
large to despise women and foreigners, and 
to train those up in the philosojxhy of Con¬ 
fucius who aspire to serve the empire in 
political situations. 

The government is a pure despotism. There 
is no aristocracy but that of learning. Wealth 
has its influence; but as all that a man is and 


has belong to the emperor, it is not always 
judicious to allow his wealth to be known. 
The eldest son has a double portion of the 
family property. The mandarins are the 
chief officers of state, and none can attain to 
this degree until after various and severe 
examinations in the learning of their nation. 
The emperor assumes numerous titles full of 
the most absurd pretension, and in a certain 
degree demands from his people religious 
worship. Foreigners are despised and hated, 
intercourse with them being reluctantly con¬ 
ceded. 

The origin of the Chinese is lost in the 
remotest antiquity. Some of the books of 
the Hindoos represent them as of Indian 
origin; their own records, Avith more pro¬ 
bability, assign to a region in the north- 
Avest of the empire their primitive home. 
Possibly the Hindoo race may have sprung 
from a tribe or family in the same moun¬ 
tainous region, AA 7 hose abode and physical 
peculiarities produced all their divergent 
characteristics. The Chinese mixed Avith 
other races—Malays, and probably races 
Avhich have long since ceased to have a dis¬ 
tinctive existence, so that in the long course 
of ages they have assumed their present type 
of humanity. Some writers represent them 
as descendants of a pre-Adamite race. Those 
AA r ho take this vieAv of course dispute the 
interpretation of the Scripture narrative, if 
not the narrative itself,—that Adam and EA 7 e 
Avere the primeval pair. Notwithstanding 
the learned and ingenious torture to Avhich. 
the passage has been subjected by critics 
and ethnologists, such a vieAv is opposed 
to the plain import of the Scripture decla¬ 
ration—“ God hath made of one blood all 
the nations of men.” 

Having described the general character 
and condition of China proper, the features 
of the country, its productions, people, their 
customs, character, religion, language, litera¬ 
ture, and government, it only remains to com¬ 
plete the description of China proper by some 
notice of its capital and chief cities. 

Pekin is the great metropolis of the empire, 
the seat of government, and “ the centre of 
the imperial thx-one.” It is situated in a vast 
alluvial plain, rich in soil, and teeming Avith 
cultivated productions, and from it as a centre 
radiates a great system of river and canal 
communication, which connects it with the 
most fertile parts of China proper, and tho 
great nuclei of population. The country 
around Pekin has an agriculture superior to 
that of any other part of China, although the 
city stands on a sandy and arid soil. It is 
divided into two parts — the northern and 
southern; the former, Avhich is the Tartar city. 



230 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XI. 


is in the form of a parallelogram, the sides 
of which face the four cardinal points. Its 
area is about twelve square miles.* The 
walls are thirty feet high, twenty-five feet in 
breadth at the ba^e, and twelve feet in breadth 
at the top, the inclination being on the inner 
side. Near the gates, of which there are 
seven, the walls are faced with marble and 
granite, in other places with large bricks 
cased in a mortar of lime and clay, which 
is as hard as the hardest stone.f The im¬ 
posing appearance of the exterior is not sus¬ 
tained by a corresponding grandeur within. 
The city is mean in the appearance of its 
private houses, streets, and public buildings. 
The principal streets are well laid out as to 
shape and width, but they are unpaved and 
filthy, and are generally filled with stench, 
emitted by great earthen pans of ordure, 
collected for manure. 

The business streets receive a certain pic¬ 
turesque appearance from the diversity of 
signboards, ornamented with inscriptions, 
painted representations, ribbons, long strips 
of many-coloured paper, and frequently broad 
flags. The great concourse of persons pass¬ 
ing along the thoroughfares or dealing in the 
shops also attract the stranger’s attention, and 
present a lively scene. Sometimes the crowds 
cover the whole area of the street, and are 
often suddenly dispersed to the right and 
left by long processions of mandarins, attended 
by men carrying umbrellas, painted lanterns, 
and various insignia of office; also by funeral 
processions, the women advancing in front, 
uttering loud and piercing cries. Marriage 
trains are among the compact lines of persons 
which seek a passage, always civilly yfielded; 
these are accompanied by drums and other 
loud instruments of music. Dromedaries, 
with coal from Tartary, sedan chairs, provi¬ 
sion carts, jugglers, itinerant musicians, ped¬ 
lars, and quacks, passing to and fro, form a 
motley scene. The streets are occupied be¬ 
yond the lines of shops by ranges of stalls, and 
a Babel of strange sounds reigns along those 
rows, as the chapmen endeavour to commend 
their goods, and the purchasers question their 
worth or quality. 

The street performances of tumblers, jug¬ 
glers, and mountebanks, are well rewarded; 
and the stolid Chinese, as we are accustomed 
to deem them, may be seen enjoying mirth 
and laughter in their most boisterous forms. 
One might suppose that the worship of 
Momus was the chief occupation among all 
the din of sounds and changing scenes pass¬ 
ing around. 

The northern division of Pekin contains 
three enclosures, one within another, and 
* The Key. Thomas Phillips, t Barrow. 


each surrounded by a wall. The first con¬ 
tains the imperial palace and household; the 
second was originally intended for the public 
officers, and the residence of the great officers 
of state, but, in addition, merchants have 
taken up their abodes, and transact their 
business there; the third enclosure is for the 
citizens generally. The first, or inmost en¬ 
closure, is the most architectural and impos¬ 
ing; it is called the “Forbidden City.” 

The opinions of the Chinese, in the re¬ 
moter provinces, concerning their capital is 
absurd, investing it with an exaggerated 
grandeur, ludicrous to those who have seen 
it. They believe that its palaces are marble, 
the columns of silver, the throne, and all the 
insignia of royalty, of gold, and sparkling 
with the costliest gems. 

The southern portion of Pekin is less 
strictly guarded than the northern, but is 
very populous. The whole is surrounded 
by a wall, the circumference within which is 
twenty-five miles. The suburbs are very 
extensive, and also very populous, containing 
streets, in which are large shops with fronts 
expensively carved and gilt. Mr. Barrow 
gives some account of the architectural pre¬ 
tensions of Pekin, which differ too little from 
those of the country generally to deserve 
further notice. Its population is estimated at 
two millions, but the jealous policy of the 
government has precluded the possibility of 
obtaining accurate information concerning it. 

China, so long closed against the residence 
of Europeans, except the mission of the 
Jesuits, was partially opened in 1842, being 
the result of the successful military operations 
of Sir Hugh (now Lord) Gough, and by the 
diplomatic negotiations of Sir Henry Pot- 
tinger. According to the treaty then effected, 
five ports were to be opened to universal 
commerce, and every facility was to be af¬ 
forded to the residence in those places of 
strangers who came for the purposes of trade. 
The ports to be opened were Canton, Amoy, 
Foo-choo-foo, Ningpo, and Shanghai. Before 
giving a description of these cities, it is 
desireable to place the terms of the treaty 
before the reader, so far as is necessary to 
enable him to understand the present position 
of Englishmen in China, their rights, and the 
causes of the complaints which have once 
more rendered an appeal to arms necessary. 

August 12, 1842.—Meetings were held by officers of 
the two powers, in which preliminaries were arranged. 

A genuine statement of facts was sent to the emperor, 
the demands of the British made known to him, and per¬ 
mission granted to the commissioners to conclude a treaty 
in accordance with them. 

August 20.—The first interview' took place between 
the plenipotentiaries on hoard the Cornwallis —a visit of 
eeremony only. 




€hap. XI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


231 


August 24.—The visit was returned on shore by Sir 
Henry Pottinger, Sir Hugh Gough, and Sir William 
Parker. 

August 26.—The high plenipotentiaries held a meeting 
on shore for the purpose of consulting the terms of the 
treaty. 

August 29.—A treaty of peace was signed before 
Nankin, on board the Cornwallis, by Sir Henry Pottinger 
on the part of Great Britain, and by Ke-yiug, Elepoo, 
and Neu-Kien, on the part of the Emperor of China. 
The most important provisions of the treaty, as stated by 
Sir Henry Pottinger, are as follows:— 

]. Lasting peace and friendship between the two 
empires. 

2. China to pay twenty-one million dollars in the 
course of the present and three succeeding years. 

3. The ports of Canton, Amoy, Foo-choo-foo, Ningpo, 
anil Shanghai to be thrown open to British merchants; 
consular officers to be appointed to reside at them; and 
regular and just tariffs of import and export, as well as 
inland transit duties, to be established and published. 

4. The island of Hong-Kong to be ceded in perpetuity 
to her Britannic majesty, her heirs and successors. 

5. All subjects of her Britannic majesty, whether 
natives of Europe or India, who may be confined in 
any part of the Chinese empire, to be unconditionally 
released. 

6. An act of full and entire amnesty to be published 
by the emperor, under his imperial sign-manual and 
seal, to all Chinese subjects, ou account of their having 
held service under the British government or its officers. 

7. Correspondence to be conducted on terms of perfect 
equality between the officer's of both governments. 

8. On the emperor’s assent being received to this 
treaty, and the payment of the first six million dollars, 
her Britannic majesty’s forces to retire from Nankin and 
the Grand Canal, and the military posts at Chinhai to be 
also withdrawn; but the islands of Chusan and Ku-lang- 
su are to be held until the money payments and the 
arrangements for opening the ports be completed. 

September 8.—The emperor signifies his assent to the 
conditions of the treaty. 

December 31.—The Great Seal of England is affixed to 
the treaty. 

■July 22, 1843.—A "proclamation issued by Sir Henry 
Pottinger, signifying that the ratifications of the treaty of 
Nankin have been exchanged under the signs-manual and 
seals of her majesty the Queen of Great Britain and his 
majesty the Emperor of China; and that a commercial 
treaty has been concluded: the trade according to the 
new system to commeuce at Canton on the 27th of July; 
the four remaining ports to be opened as soon as the 
imperial edict to that effect has been received. 

This edict was afterwards issued, the ports 
were opened, and. consuls appointed. At 
Canton, however, it was pretended by the 
representative of his imperial majesty that 
the treaty could not be carried into effect, 
in consequence of the turbulent character of 
the people of that city, and the old restric¬ 
tions were enforced with little mitigation. 
The British authorities, meekly adopting what 
they considered a conciliatory policy, allowed 
this infraction of the treaty, forgetting that 
orientals never appreciate concessions made 
from such motives, but look upon them as 
proofs of the intellectual imbecility of those 
who make them, or as signs of their political 
weakness, or evidences that they are ashamed 


of their own cause and principles, and doubt 
its justice. The Cantonese thus reasoned: 
they supposed that, after having made the 
experiment of war upon the empire, the Eng¬ 
lish believed it to be invincible; that the 
liberty of commerce granted by the emperor 
arose from his great clemency, and somewhat 
from his contempt of the barbarians, whose 
power he had tested, and proved to be “as 
the willow before the monsoon; ” that the 
English dare not enforce the treaty at Can¬ 
ton, the citizens of which would prove their 
loyalty to the too clement emperor, and 
teach an important lesson to the barbarians, 
by refusing them ingress to their city. The 
English authorities had the extraordinary 
infatuation to submit to this, and with the 
approval of the country generally. The 
Peel party, the peace party, the free-trade 
party, and many enlightened and humane 
English citizens, upheld the government in 
overlooking the breach of treaty, and, for 
the sake of peace and humanity, endeavour¬ 
ing to conduct their commerce at Canton 
under the restrictions which the violaters 
of the treaty imposed. The result was 
outrages and wrongs upon English and other 
foreign citizens, and at last an appeal to arms 
in 1857. A peremptory demand for the 
faithful execution of the treaty the moment 
any hesitation was evinced to comply with it 
would have spared the shedding of much 
blood and the loss of much property, as well 
as have secured years ago a fair, if not 
friendly feeling, with the Cantonese, who 
continued to cherish hatred and contempt 
to strangers, under the inflated ideas of their 
importance and power, which the submission 
of the English conduced to foster. The 
native merchants of Canton, and the viceroys 
of the emperor, exasperated the native pre¬ 
judices for their own venal purposes. There 
was a supplementary treaty to that of Nan¬ 
kin, which has been felt very injuriously by 
the British traders at all the ports. 

Extracts from the Supplementary Treaty , Oct. 8, 1842. 

Art. IV.—After the five ports of Cauton, Foo-choo- 
foo, Amoy, Ningpo, and Shanghai, shall be thrown open, 
English merchants shall be allowed to trade only at those 
five ports. Neither shall they repair to any other ports 
or places, nor will the Chinese people at any other ports 
or places be permitted to trade with them. If English 
merchant-vessels shall, in contravention of this agreement, 
and of a proclamation to the same purport to be issued by 
the British plenipotentiary, repair to any other ports or 
places, the Chinese government officers shall be at liberty 
to seize and confiscate both vessels and cargoes; and 
should Chinese people be discovered clandestinely dealing 
with English merchants at any other ports or places, they 
shall be punished by the Chinese government in such 
mauner as the law may direct. 

Art. VI.—It is agreed that English merchants and 
others residing at or resorting to the five ports to be 



HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XI. 


232 

opened, shall not go into the surrounding country beyond 
short distances to be named by the local authorities in 
concert with the British consul, and on no pretence for 
purposes of traffic. Seamen and persons belonging to the 
ships shall only be allowed to land under authority and 
rules, which will be fixed by the consul in communication 
with the local officers; and should any persons whatever 
infringe the stipulations of this article, and wander away 
into the country, they shall be seized and handed over to 
the British consul for suitable punishment. 

The interpretation of the clause limiting 
the distance to which British subjects may go 
into the country, has been a source of per¬ 
petual dispute, and the lives of Englishmen 
have been repeatedly sacrificed, when they 
were, as they supposed, enjoying such liberty 
in the country as the treaty allowed. At 
all the ports except Canton the severity of the 
imperial restrictions have been relaxed, and 
some adventurous Englishmen have penetrated 
far into the interior. 

Canton is situated in a plain, which is well 
cultivated; there are undulated landscapes at 
no great distance, and a bold line of hills 
towards the north-east. The city is divided 
into two portions—north and south; the for¬ 
mer is called the old city, the latter the new. 
The northern is the Tartar town, and is three 
times as large, and nearly three times as 
populous, as the Chinese town. “ The new 
city ” is enclosed by Avails, AAdiich are carried 
down to the river. The suburbs greatly 
exceed the city in extent, and are very popu¬ 
lous. The population of the town and its 
environs is generally computed at one million. 

There are few places more repulsive to a 
European. The streets are narrow lanes, 
reeking Avith abominable odours, and filled 
Avith a filthy, riotous, and arrogant population. 
New China Street, Curiosity Street, and some 
others near the foreign residences, afford 
innumerable vistas of long narrow lanes, such 
as no European imagination coidd con¬ 
ceive. The confusion and ci'OAA T ding of so 
vast a population in such thoroughfares must 
occasion great inconvenience, especially as 
any large object, such as a load protruding 
far from the head or shoulders of a coolie, or 
a mandarin carried in his chair upon the 
shoulders of four men, necessarily fills a large 
portion of the space. The people bear these 
inconveniences with good humour, and acci¬ 
dents seldom occur. Fires are, hoAvever, very 
frequent, and terrible destruction is created 
by them. The style of the houses is inferior, 
but there are good taverns and hotels, to 
Avhich the merchants resort Avhose families 
are at a distance; and when these buildings 
are lighted up gaily at night, they present a 
cheerful and sometimes almost brilliant spec¬ 
tacle. Canton has one hundred and twenty- 
seven temples, pagodas, and joss-houses. 


The situation of the town on the Canton 
River gives it great commercial advantages, 
Avhich are increased by the character and 
resources of the country beyond it. The 
sinuosities and intricacies of the river’s ap¬ 
proach are most troublesome to mariners, 
and, Avere the Chinese more skilled in the art 
of Avar, Avould furnish great advantage against 
a maritime enemy attempting Canton. In 
the vicinity of the city itself the river Avashes 
into the land in innumerable creeks. A large 
number of the inhabitants reside in boats 
upon the water: this river population has 
been computed variously from one to two 
hundred thousand—the latter is probably the 
more correct computation. The boats are 
someAvhat ark-shaped, and might, at a little 
distance, be mistaken for Avooden houses built 
along the Ioav banks of the stream. Their 
occupants live in much harmony, taking good 
humouredly and patiently the accidents which 
must sometimes, but do not often, occur 
to their floating tenements. When, on the 
19th of December, 1857, the British and 
French squadrons anchored off the city, the 
terror of these rHer-residents was great; and 
the sight afforded by so vast a population 
moving aAvay upon the water AA T as extraordi¬ 
nary and impressive. The allies, in their 
clemency, alloxved this moAmment; and those 
Avho on shore resided in Avooden and portable 
dwellings, took them doAvn Avith. great rapidity, 
and removed them out of the range of the 
guns. The river here divides Canton from 
Honan, situated on the opposite side. The 
channel is not three hundred yards Avide, and 
it appears much narrower Avlien coAmred by 
the mass of boats already described. The 
mandarin passage-boats, Avith high poops 
elaborately carved, and the floAver-boats 
painted gaily, and hung within Avith lustres 
and lanterns, give an air of the picturesque 
to Avhat otherwise Avould be sombre and 
monotonous. The cargo-boats xvhich ply in 
their trade, and Avhich, unlike the hut-boats 
AAdiich are divellings, are constantly moving 
about, and give a maritime aspect to the 
river, which relieves the sameness created by 
the long, dull lines of the motionless habita¬ 
tions of those Avhose home is on the water. 
The gentleman who corresponded with the 
Times during the hostile operations at the 
close of 1857, describing the appearance of 
the river and city at the moment AAdien the 
latter aauis cleared of the fugitHe boats, has 
afforded a more distinct idea of the place and 
its aspect vieAved from on board ship, than 
any other Avriter AAdio has imparted his 
impressions of Canton : — “ And hoav the 
channel is clear. We haA T e an uninterrupted 
I vieiv along it. It is not nearly so wide as 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


233 


Chap. XI.] 

the Thames at Wapping, and moreover there 
are no bridges to interrupt the line of sight; 
but the buildings on each side are much of 
the same character as those at Wapping and 
Rotherhithe—the warehouses of Honan on 
the right, the low buildings of Canton on the 
left. About half-a-mile up there is a wide 
interval, covered only with heaps of building 
rubbish, but having no structure standing but 
a newly-built Chinese gateway—a sort of 
triumphal arch, whereon is writ, in Chinese 
characters, ‘ The site of Hog Lane.’ Beyond 
this interval, as large or larger than the 
Temple Gardens—an interval which will he 
readily recognised as the location of the 
destroyed factories—there are ruins. High, 
square, brick-built pillars start up from the 
debris of their fallen roofs: these are the 
remains of the hongs and warehouses, bat¬ 
tered or buried during the retaliatory attack 
of the British fleet. A little further on, 
where the stream slightly widens, there is an 
islet in mid-channel: it is covered with the 
wreck of masonry; stones and brickwork are 
lying about in shapeless masses; hut nine 
trees, which have survived the deed of vio¬ 
lence these ruins tell of, rise in the interstices, 
and shake their leaves and offer shade. This 
islet shuts in the view and closes the vista; 
it is the site of the Dutch Folly Fort.” 

Probably no large city, at all events out of 
China, ever possessed so little architectural 
attractions. The northern portion, where 
the residence of the viceroy and the public 
offices are situated, is much pleasanter than 
the southern, for it contains large gardens 
belonging to state functionaries; but with 
the exception of certain elevated spots, occu¬ 
pied by forts, the whole aspect of the city, 
from whatever point it is viewed, is dreary 
and monotonous. 

The country on the banks of the Canton 
River has seldom been admired, but the 
writer last quoted expresses an animated 
admiration of it. When he visited it last 
November, the second rice crop was being 
gathered, the patches of sugar-cane looked 
green and reedy, and the bananas still clus¬ 
tered upon the trees; the climate at that 
season is not severe, and the landscape wears 
a pleasing aspect. The country is a rich 
alluvial vale, dotted and intersected with 
granite hills. 

Shanghai is the capital of a department 
called Sung-keang-foo. It is surrounded by 
a wall three miles in circumference, which is 
entered by six gates. A canal, twenty feet 
in width, surrounds this wall, from which 
others branch through the city. The town is 
also surrounded and intersected either by rivers 
or canals; and the whole country, for many 

von. I. 


miles, is cut through by dykes, ditches, and 
drains, which irrigate the soil and drain it, as 
may be required. A considerable section of 
the town near to the western gate is occupied 
by gardens. There is a good line of river 
frontage, extending half a mile, suitable for 
commercial convenience. On the north-east 
suburbs land has been set apart for foreign 
residents. The site of the city is excellent 
for trade: it is generally regarded as salu¬ 
brious. The climate, for a considerable portion 
of the year, is agreeable to Europeans; but in 
the height of summer the glass rises to 
100°, while in the depth of winter it falls 
to 24°. The population is about one-fifth 
that of Canton, and one-tenth that of Pekin. 
Shanghai is geographically situated 33° 24' 
north latitude, 121° 32' east longitude, on 
the banks of the Woosung River, at the point 
of its confluence with the Wangpoo, and is dis¬ 
tant about twelve miles from the confluence 
of the Yang-tse. The following picturesque 
description of the approach to the city is 
given by the gentleman who has been before 
quoted as the most recent traveller in China 
whose accormts have been given to the public:— 

“ At a distance of three miles, in the grey 
twilight, Shanghai looks like a distant view 
of Woolwich. The tall spars of the Pique 
frigate, the English and American steamers 
of war, and a fleet of merchant vessels, give 
an air of life and bustle to the waters of this 
noble tributary to the Yang-tse-Kiang. 
Higher up, where a turn in the river gives 
an inland appearance, we see a multitudinous 
mass of junk masts, just as from Greenwich 
and Woolwich we see the spars of the ships 
that crowd our docks. All tells of a large 
commerce requiring a strong protection. In 
this indistinct light the ‘ hongs ’ of the Euro¬ 
pean settlement loom like the ship slips at 
Deptford or Woolwich. It is only upon a 
near approach that they resolve themselves 
into fine finished buildings, some columned 
like Grecian temples, some square and mas¬ 
sive like Italian palaces, but all declaratory 
that the res angusta domi is a woe unknown 
to Englishmen in China. 

“ The English settlement at Shanghai is 
situate upon a bend of this river Wangpoo: 
its boundaries are its fortifications. On one 
side the Soo-choo River, which comes down 
from the great city Soo-choo (the Birmingham 
of China), and falls into the Wangpoo, forms 
its limits. On the other side, the Yang- 
kang-pang canal shuts it from the settlement 
allotted to the French. This French allot¬ 
ment extends up to the walls of the Chinese 
city of Shanghai. The frontage upon the 
Wangpoo, between the Soo-choo River and the 
canal, is nearly a mile in length, and the set- 

H H 



234 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XI. 


element extends backwards about half a mile. 
This space is divided into squares by six 
roads at right angles with the river, and 
three parallel to it, and in these squares are 
the residences and godowns of the commercial 
houses, each in its surrounding plot of orna¬ 
mented ground. In the rear of all is the 
Shanghai racecourse.” 

The commercial importance of Shanghai is 
very great. In 1856, the number of British 
ships which unloaded at the quays was 309, 
their united burthen being 92,943 tons. The 
imports of Shanghai which, during the same 
year, passed through the custom-house from 
all parts, were of the value of £3,010,511: 
this was irrespective of the grand import 
from British India of opium to the value of 
£4,634,305. The tea exported to Europe, 
America, and Australia, the silk exported 
chiefly to Europe, and a few other commodi¬ 
ties also sent abroad, reached the enormous 
value of £11,932,806. Of course the dif¬ 
ference was received by China in the pre¬ 
cious metals, chiefly silver; this was one of 
the causes of that great drain of silver from 
Europe and America, which has affected the 
monetary and commercial world, and which, 
for a time, appeared to be a puzzle to finan¬ 
ciers and capitalists. During the year 1857 
there was a great increase in the imports, but 
a still greater in the exports, requiring a 
larger payment in the precious metals to 
adjust the balance. The returns have not 
yet reached Europe by which these state¬ 
ments can be proved, but persons intimately 
acquainted with the commerce of the port 
affirm that the proportion of exports to 
imports during 1857 will require nearly 
double the amount of silver to be paid at 
Shanghai. This prosperity is the result of 
the industry of the people and the enterprise 
of foreigners, chiefly English and Americans, 
while the signs of bad government prevail all 
through that part of the interior, of which 
Shanghai is the natural outlet. Official pecula¬ 
tion, and the grinding oppressions which have 
created a great rebellion, have worried and 
distressed the country, and left it without 
roads; while its wonderful water-lines have 
been permitted to fall into decay over a con¬ 
siderable area of country where these are 
essential to the public weal. 

There is a mail between Shanghai and 
Hong-Kong, carried by five steamers of two 
hundred and ninety horse-power. It is 
alleged that cargoes of opium produce the 
chief profit realised: there are generally six 
British receiving ships in the river, to which 
the Chinese repair for the article. The cen¬ 
tre of the great commerce of Shanghai is 
the foreign settlement already referred to, 


and which merits a more particular descrip¬ 
tion. The buildings are very large, well 
built, two stories in height, with upper veran¬ 
dahs, and lower ones of a different form. 
The garden-ground is laid out -with firs, 
shrubs, and flowers. The tea and silk ware¬ 
houses are generally about one hundred and 
thirty feet in length, by forty in width: most 
of them are built of brick, but some of Ningpo 
granite. The merchants of Shanghai have 
the reputation of living in great luxury. 

The most interesting objects in the Chinese 
city are the English Missionary Church, and 
an American lecture-room. The joss-house 
is an object of curiosity to strangers: in the 
centre of an extensive hall is a large cup, 
with the names of those who contributed to 
place it there inscribed upon it. The exte¬ 
rior and entrance are covered with figures of 
Buddha and saints curiously carved; also of 
dragons, and strange creatures of Chinese 
imagination. The interior is highly deco¬ 
rated, and large gilt statues of Buddha 
abound. Various emblematical figures, to 
which the vulgar render worship, are also 
placed there. 

A visit to a Shanghai court of justice in 
1856 by an American * is thus narrated :— 
“ Again we started for the court of justice, 
and this was a memorable half hour in my 
tour. It was a clean, dignified room, with a 
mandarin, w T hose whole mien bore unmistake- 
able marks of authority, sitting on the seat of 
the judge, with policemen, assistants, officials, 
and clerks, on every side; the prisoners, with 
chains about their legs, and arms hid behind 
them, were waiting their trial and the decision 
of the judge. One man was up in the cri¬ 
minal box; but the system of examination 
was too cruel for me to continue long in the 
room. First the guard struck him fiercely 
over the mouth with a bamboo official staff, 
the poor wretch shrieking with pain; the 
other prisoners all the while remaining stolid 
and indifferent spectators, not knowing who 
was to come next. Afterwards another kind 
of torture was resorted to, the guard making 
the criminal kneel down with his hands above 
his head in a position which extorted yells of 
agony, the judge and the officials all showing 
the utmost indifference. A little further on 
there were two criminals with huge bolts 
about their ankles, and the kanga (a large 
square piece of plank) hung round their 
neck. The whole trial seemed a farce—a 
mixture of brutal cruelty with refined bar¬ 
barism. From the court we went to the 
bastinado, or jail, and saw scores of prisoners 
above and below: all the cells were crow’ded, 
and the clanking of chains and hoarse growls 
* George Francis Train, Esq., Boston, Massachusets. 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


235 


Chap. XI.'] 

of the prisoners spoke another phase of Chi¬ 
nese life.” Mr. Train also visited the hospital, 
which he declares to be equal to those of the 
United States in care, cleanliness, and com¬ 
fort. 

On a former page reference was made to 
the existence of foundling hospitals in China. 
That at Shanghai was visited by the gentle¬ 
man last quoted, and his account of it affords 
a most striking exhibition of Chinese manners. 
Having described the mode of depositing the 
baby, similar to that already given, he ob¬ 
serves :—“ As we entered, the nurses, each 
with a child in her arms, started off in all 
directions, apparently frightened at the ap¬ 
pearance of the fau-quais (foreign devils). 
It was some time before they would come 
out of their rooms, and then they stared at 
us with unfeigned surprise. I should have 
taken up one of the Lilliputian Celestials, but 
I was cautioned against it—for, if no con¬ 
tagious disease be caught, you are sure to get 
vermin on your dress. We wandered about 
the large apartments from room to room, all 
of which had one or two occupants, and some 
were filled with older children, in baby- 
jumpers of strikingly original make, the 
nurses all appearing, after a moment of 
fright, to gaze upon the strange sight of 
features, manners, and dress. Is it possible, 
said I, that all the charitable institutions of 
the European and Anglo-Saxon race are 
observed in such detail in Asiatic China 1” 

Among the modern enterprises of Shanghai 
is a large market, which an American was 
erecting at a recent period, and which, pos¬ 
sibly, by this time has been brought to a 
completion. 

The city of Foo-choo-foo (called also Hoh- 
choo) is situated in 26° 7' north latitude, and 
in 119° 15' east longitude. This is a very 
large town—one of the largest in China. The 
circumscribing wall is eight and a half miles 
in extent. It is the capital of the province 
of Fo-kien. The population is computed at 
more than half a million. The country around 
forms a circular basin, with a diameter of 
twenty miles. The usual uniformity and 
monotony of a Chinese city is to be found in 
this, but there are various relieving circum¬ 
stances. Trees are planted at various places, 
which, notwithstanding their pent-up situa¬ 
tion, display their verdure and refresh the 
eye. At the northern extremity a hill rises 
abruptly, and is crowned by a watch-tower, 
which can be seen from the whole city and 
the country around for some distance. On 
the south-east another hill rises five hundred 
feet, its sides ornamented with temples and 
the better description of dwellings. Between 
these two hills in the southern section of the 


city there are two rather striking pagodas. 
The residences of the great mandarins are 
indicated by tall decorated poles or bv painted 
walls. The city walls are devious, strangely 
coloured, and bear conspicuous buildings, 
meant for watch-towers. The writer last 
quoted describes his visit, which was made at 
night, under the guidance of Chinese boat¬ 
men; and represents himself as taken through 
lanes dismal in the lantern’s shade, up dirty, 
ragged, stone-fenced streets, down under 
deeper arches than before, only to go up 
again stone steps almost perpendicular to an 
immense height. 

It was not until 1853 that Foo-choo-foo 
assumed importance in the eyes of the foreign 
merchants: the disturbances at Canton and 
the rebellion at Shanghai brought it into 
notice. American enterprise has the credit 
of having first turned the port to advantage, 
but the first vessel which left it freighted 
with Chinese produce was Dutch. 

The streets are narrow, intricate, and un¬ 
sightly, as is the case with all Chinese towns ; 
probably they are narrower in Foo-choo-foo 
than in any other great city of China. Narrow 
as the streets are, they are made more so by 
the encroachments of the vendors of various 
commodities, who occupy the side-ways, so 
as to leave in the centre scarcely any room 
for a chair to be carried through. 

The most conspicuous buildings are . the 
treasury department, and the houses of the 
various officials. There are two temples of 
some note—one dedicated to “ the god of 
war,” and one to “the goddess of mercy.” 
The viceregal palace, the college, and jail, 
are all worthy of some consideration, but 
their exterior is not remarkable, except for 
the curious decorations, which show the Chi¬ 
nese desire of display. An intelligent tra¬ 
veller who passed through the streets of the 
city declares that the people’s industry sur¬ 
passed anything witnessed by him anywhere, 
although lie had visited every portion of the 
globe. So intent were many of the mechanics 
upon their business, that although a European 
carried in a chair through their streets was a 
rare sight, and great crowds followed that 
in which our observer was seated, yet these 
workmen never raised their eyes from their 
occupations. This traveller considered the 
Ningpo temple the best piece of architecture 
at Fouchow; it has numerous apartments, 
and galleries oddly stuccoed, or carved, or 
painted. There are two enormous columns 
of granite, its chief exterior ornament, and 
these are covered with designs the most 
peculiar. These specimens of Chinese archi¬ 
tectural taste cost “two almas”—ten thou¬ 
sand dollars, which, considering the cheap- 




236 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XI. 


ness of material and labour in China, would 
equal £4000 in England, and probably more. 
The sculpture on these columns is tastefully 
executed in some instances, but the chief 
effect is produced by the originality and 
oddity of the designs. 

The bridge of Waw-show is one of the 
curiosities of the city; it is an immense 
structure. The first part of it, from the 
south side to the island of Chang-chow, con¬ 
sists of nine stone arches; it is three hundred 
and thirty feet long by twelve wide; from the 
island the bridge is continued to the Nan-toe 
subixrb, a distance of thirteen hundred feet. 
“ The upper bridge, on the western side, is 
eleven thousand feet in length.” The whole 
of the lines of bridges are occupied with street 
vendors, retailing pancakes, bamboos, and 
innumerable oddities of food, apparel, and 
utensils, the use of which could not be recog¬ 
nised by a European. The result of this 
shopkeeping on the bridge thoroughfares is 
to narrow still more their original inade¬ 
quate dimensions, ' and thereby impede the 
traffic. “ Twice,” wrote a traveller, who 
recorded his experience of the bridge of 
Waw-show, “ my chair was near going over, 
and once I was held bodily over the tumbling 
waters below for more than a minute, so as to 
let an immense cortege with a Chinese man¬ 
darin go by. This bridge is old, but strong 
as petrified rock; and how the architect 
raised the immense stones to their resting- 
place with the simple machinery of China 1 
am at a loss to understand.” The same writer 
records the experience of another day in the 
streets of this city in the following interesting 
record :—“ While passing along one of the 
widest streets we suddenly saw a great com¬ 
motion among the citizens, and a most abrupt 
dropping of my chair came immediately after; 
then appeared bands of Chinese music; then 
officers of state, on little long-haired, dirty 
white ponies, with pikes and shields, followed 
by a company of infantry, one upon another, 
in splendid confusion; and just at this moment 
my coolie got another crack over the head 
with a bamboo for being too anxious to view 
a pompous mandarin; others came pouring 
on—musicians and guards—and soon some 
well-dressed chair-bearers; and then it was 
that I discovered the cause of this immense 
assemblage, and why I had been so grossly 
insulted by having my chair thrown into the 
mud—for I was just then in the presence of 
his most royal and noble exellency the Tartar 
general of the province and country round 
about. More of his attaches followed, and 
everything was again quiet. On mentioning 
this circumstance on my return to the British 
consul, he said it was most unusual to meet 


the great officer away from his palace, but 
that his want of courtesy only tends to show 
the still hostile feeling which the mandarins, 
not immediately interested, have against 
foreigners. I also have been told that the 
prefect has sent two or three most insulting 
notes to her majesty’s representative. Save 
that unceremonious reception, we met with 
no hard treatment from the dense crowd that 
followed us through the palace-yard, where 
we were obliged to leave our chairs, through 
Curiosity Street, one of the widest in the city. 
The Tartar general was completely wrapped 
in furs, and, as he was paraded past, looked 
down upon us with the greatest possible 
contempt. We examined in Curiosity Street 
the whole assortment of bronze and stone 
ornaments, and saw many beautiful specimens 
of ivory-carving, wood-work, and tortoise¬ 
shell, all which show patience, plodding, and 
ingenuity, remarkable, for each specimen is 
made with the simplest machinery. My 
companion made some purchases of bronze, 
but I was more amused with some lacquered 
ware that was on exhibition in one of the 
shops, and purchased eighty dollars’ worth of 
little boxes (exquisitely ornamented, entirely 
made of lacquer), and a beautiful lady’s 
dressing-case, with more compartments than 
cells in a honeycomb. These presents for 
home are most valuable, because so rare; 
only one individual in the empire possesses 
the secret, and Fouchow is the only place 
where they can be bought, hence the enor¬ 
mous prices which are charged, for all that 
he manufactures that are not sold to foreigners 
are taken to the imperial palace at Pekin, 
which accounts for the independence of the 
artist—no rival in his Japanese skill, and an 
emperor and empress for patrons! Save in 
that wonderful ware, I think that the much- 
celebrated Curiosity Street of Fouchow is 
over-rated. One day soon disappeared in 
searching about that old city, which numbers 
some six hundred thousand souls, and, if the 
suburbs are also included, possibly a million. 
But, from my description of what I saw in 
Shanghai, you may judge of my experience 
to-day. My time did not admit of my going 
over the grounds of the old British consulate, 
formerly a monastery of much antiquity and 
consequent interest, from which site the view 
of the city is most beautiful; neither did I 
visit the far-famed monastery of Cose-shan, 
situated about fourteen hundred feet above 
the city, commanding a most imposing view 
for miles around. The quaint bell and im¬ 
mense gong struck by the priests—the ancient 
relic of Buddha—a whale’s tooth—an old 
priest, said to be five hundred years of age, 
who lives in a cage, with finger-nails four 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


237 


Chap. XI.] 

inches long, and who looks in splendid con¬ 
dition for a man who eats nothing, and has 
been starving himself for centuries—the pond 
of tame fish which the good fathers feed from 
the hand—and the singular semi-Catholic, 
semi-barbarous style of costume and manners, 
would have amply repaid me for my time; 
hut my time would not admit of it, and the 
day was rainy, else I might have accepted 
Mr. Hale’s mountain-chair, so generously 
proffered by the British consul.” The peak 
overhanging the monastery is two thousand 
seven hundred feet above the sea, and with a 
good glass mountains, rivers, and villages can 
be seen at great distances. On the extreme 
point, Europeans who have ascended the 
mountain have left their memorial in a stone 
pile, called a casin, each adding a piece to 
the heap. 

The population within the walls of the city 
is about six hundred thousand; that without 
is about two-thirds of the number, making 
a total of a million. 

The country around is extremely pleasant; 
the villages are populous, the land undulated, 
and in some places the scenery is even fine. 
The Pih-ling Hills offer a very pleasing place 
of excursion for the Europeans and Americans 
who reside within the town; these are not 
numerous, comprising in all about fifty foreign 
residents, merchants, consuls and their offi¬ 
cials, and missionaries. Only three or four 
ladies were among them at the beginning of 
1857. The merchants and consuls complain 
of the dulness of the place, from the very 
limited European society. The missionaries 
alone seem content with what the other foreign 
residents regard as a trying isolation. Those 
reverend men are content in their great work, 
and toil on with unceasing solicitude, studying 
the language, literature, manners, and cha¬ 
racter of the people, and watching with un¬ 
slumbering vigilance for opportunity of bring¬ 
ing the natives to the knowledge of Chris¬ 
tianity. Not far from the city a dialect or 
language is spoken which the Chinese do not 
understand, but, strangely enough, the Canton 
English, as it is called, forms a medium of 
communication. 

It will be instructive to the reader to give 
a few statistics on the exports of Foo-choo- 
foo:— 

EXPORTS FROM FOUCROW. 

TO GREAT BRITAIN. 

1853- 4. 10 vessels. 5,959,000 lbs. 

1854- 5. 35 vessels. 20,493,000 „ 

1855- 6. 20 vessels (July to Jau.) .... 15,601,500 „ 

TO THE UNITED STATES. 

1853- 4. 2 vessels. 1,355,000 lbs. 

1854- 5. 13 vessels. 5,500,000 „ 

1855- 6. 14 vessels (July to Jau.) .... 8,848,500 „ 


In the season 1853-4 about 300,000 lbs. of tea were 
exported coastwise. 

During the season 1854-5 two vessels were dispatched 
to Australia, taking 509,000 lbs. of tea, and three vessels 
out of the thirty-five to England went to the continent, 
taking 1,140,000 lbs. of tea. 

In 1855-6 three vessels w r ere dispatched to Australia; 
estimated cargoes, 700,000 lbs. To the continent two 
vessels were dispatched, taking about 400,000 lbs., and 
coastwise nearly 1,000,000 lbs. were sent during the 
season. 

The Hamburg ship Alma Oyla was the first vessel 
that left Fouchow with teas for a foreign port; she left 
on the 19th of August, 1853; the American ship Tsar 
followed her on the 27th of August: both bound for 
London. The last-named arrived first. 

The ship Houqua was the first vessel to the United 
States; she left January 16th, 1854, and was followed by 
the ship Oriental on the 22nd of February, and was lost 
in Kin-pai Pass on the 25 th of the same month. 

Black teas are the principal exports.* 

The neighbourhood of Foo-choo-foo is in¬ 
fested by pirates, and traders require to keep 
a good look-out, to carry guns, and have a 
well-appointed crew, practised in small arms. 
Notwithstanding these precautions, terrible 
catastrophes have occurred. Sometimes, 
however, the pirates, even when in dark nights 
they have, with muffled oars, approached a 
vessel at anchor, and so escaped the fire of 
its cannon, have paid a bitter penalty for 
their temerity under the rifles and revolvers 
of English or Americans. 

Near Foo-choo-foo is a place called Woo- 
sung, which has only of late attracted the 
notice of foreigners. Close by this there is a 
mission village, erected by the American 
Episcopalians ; it contains an excellent house 
for the bishop, with a dozen other well- 
built stone erections, which are inhabited by 
the clergymen, schoolmasters and mistresses, 
native teachers, medical assistants, &c. The 
beautiful appearance of the village, amidst the 
strange monotonous scenery around it, is like 
an oasis in the desert. 

Ningpo is in longitude 121° 22' east, and 
in latitude 29° 55' north. It is the capital of 
a department and a province, and is con¬ 
sidered the finest coast city to which foreigners 
are allowed access. The Chinese hold it in 
high reputation for the literary attainment 
and refinement of its citizens. One-fifth of 
the whole population within the walls is com¬ 
puted to be engaged in literature. About a 
tenth of the population beyond the city walls 
is supposed to consist of sailors and fisher¬ 
men. The manufactures are chiefly mats, 
carpets, and cloth, the latter principally woven 
by women. There are one hundred thousand 
houses and shops taxed by government. The 
population within the walls and in the suburbs 
cannot be less than half a million. The city 
is surrounded by a wall five miles in eircum- 
* Train. 









238 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XI. 


ference, and possessing six gates, which open 
upon the suburb or the river. Within this 
wall the people may be said, without a violent 
figure of speech, to be packed together, so 
narrow are the streets and dense the popula¬ 
tion ; yet the principal streets, from which the 
others branch, are spacious, and the houses 
superior to those in other Chinese cities. 
Considerable space is occupied by temples 
and other public buildings, and there are 
some gardens of considerable extent in pro¬ 
portion to the size of the place; these are 
beautifully cultivated, and give a fresh and 
rural appearance to their neighbourhood. 
The space occupied by these gardens, build¬ 
ings, and spacious streets, is so considerable, 
that the dwellings in the remainder of the 
city are crowded together to afford habita¬ 
tions for so numerous a population. These 
circumstances also cause the suburbs to in¬ 
crease rapidly. 

The people of Ningpo impress strangers 
more favourably than those of any other 
Chinese city; they contrast strikingly with 
the rude and boisterous natives of Canton. 
Their bearing to strangers is polite, respect¬ 
ful, and, to some extent, kind. 

The Times' special correspondent arrived 
at Ningpo at the latter end of August, 1857. 
The place was then in great agitation, from 
the depredations made by Portuguese pirates, 
and their destruction by the Chinese fleet, 
and also from the consequences of the great 
rebellion. The correspondent thus records 
his impressions of the place and its commer¬ 
cial importance :—“ This great city, with its 
three hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, 
its beautiful river, and its excellent water 
connection with the interior, is the least 
valuable of all our commercial stations. 
Neither tea nor silk is brought down in 
any quantities, and the little tea that is pre¬ 
pared here is sent to Shanghai to be shipped. 
The importation of British and straits’ pro¬ 
duce was last year but £136,359 9s., and not 
two-thirds of this was British manufacture. 
The greater security of European shipping 
and its comparative immunity from the pirates 
outside (whom I saw the other day send a 
whole fleet of junks back into the river) have 
given it some importance as a shipping port 
for Amoy, Formosa, Swatow, and the straits. 
In 1856 a hundred and ninety-eight British 
ships, with an aggregate of 25,506 tons, 
loaded here. This carrying trade is likely to 
increase, for the Chinese are becoming quite 
alive to the advantage of a stout ship and an 
English flag. ‘ Can insure ? ’ is a question 
now very often in a Chinaman’s mouth, and 
Chinamen are rich in this city. Ningpo is 
still in the after-throb of great excitement. 


The European settlement is on the side of 
the river opposite to the walled city. The 
hongs are not numerous, nor very large, and 
they are mixed up with Chinese, residences 
and large timber yards (timber is the staple 
of Ningpo), and they form a rectangle, the 
area behind which is occupied by graves and 
paddy-fields, but chiefly by graves.” 

In connection with the opening up of China 
to European intercourse, the gentleman re¬ 
ferred to declares that the difficulties are not 
so great as has been supposed in Europe. 
Before reaching the city of Ningpo he had 
travelled many miles by the great water¬ 
courses, and he thus observes upon the gene¬ 
ral experience of Chinese behaviour which 
his journey afforded :—“ We arrived at Ning¬ 
po, after some discomfort and some necessity 
for strong doses of quinine, but after much 
excitement and great enjoyment. We have 
passed four hundred miles of country not 
often before traversed. We have entered 
four first-class Chinese cities (two of them 
unknown to European travellers), many 
second class cities, which in other countries 
might be classed as first, and innumerable 
towns and villages. Throughout the whole 
of our journey we have received from no 
Chinese an uncivil word or insulting gesture. 
No mischievous urchin has thrown stones 
down upon us from any one of the hundreds 
of bridges we passed through ; no one stopped 
us, and no one waylaid us. It is true that 
the mandarins at Peh-Kwan sent us a mes¬ 
sage to appear at their yamun, but when we 
sent answer that we would endeavour to make 
preparation to receive their visit on board 
our boats, and when Mr. Edkins had sent 
them a Testament, they took the evasive 
answer in good part, and suffered our boat¬ 
men to proceed. From this journey I draw 
two practical conclusions: the first is, that 
the authorities in China are exceedingly 
anxious in no way to complicate their present 
disputes with England, and, holding in very 
wholesome terror the English name, are in¬ 
clined to shut their eyes to the presence of 
peaceably conducted foreigners ; the second is, 
that, unless excited by the authorities, as they 
have been at Canton (and as they might have 
been here, for had the mandarins chosen to 
say we were Portuguese, we should certainly 
have had our throats cut), the Chinese people 
have no objection whatever to the presence 
of foreigners in their cities. Whenever, 
therefore, the provisions of a new treaty shall 
open all China to every European provided 
with a passport from his own consul, there 
will be no difficulty in the English merchant 
carrying his own goods up the rivers and 
canals, and into the great cities of China. 





Chap. XI. 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


239 


The people will be glad enough to trade 
with him, and the authorities can, if they 
will, protect him.” 

There is, however, a difficulty in the way 
of European intercourse with China which is 
seldom discussed—the bad conduct of the 
Europeans themselves. The foregoing ex¬ 
tract shows the spirit entertained towards 
the Portuguese, whose conduct is in every 
respect infamous in their dealings with the 
people of China. The behaviour of British 
sailors is sometimes also very bad. and creates 
a dangerous prejudice. The following in¬ 
stance, related by “ the correspondent,” will 
illustrate this, and the recommendation he 
expresses for the prevention of such misdeeds 
is worthy the consideration of the powers now 
engaged, by their successful arms, in open- 
ing up China more freely to the nations:— 
“ A circumstance has just occurred which 
still further illustrates the great impolicy of 
allowing European vagabonds to be uncon¬ 
trolled in this country. ‘Squeezing’ has be¬ 
come so intolerable in this province, that a 
large city not forty miles distant is in rebel¬ 
lion. Every power in China ‘ squeezes.’ 
The toutai sends forth to ‘squeeze,’ the 
the Canton fleet sends out to ‘ squeeze,’ and 
squeezing parties are undertaken upon pri¬ 
vate account. A few days since an Irishman, 
accompanied by some Chinese, went into the 
interior to one of the villages where I had 
passed the previous night, upon, it is alleged, 
a squeezing expedition. While there he acci¬ 
dentally shot one of his Chinese companions. 
Delighted with this opportunity of ‘ getting 
the law on their side,’ the populace rose, 
seized the Irishman, bound him as though he 
had been a wild beast which no thongs 
could make harmless, and sent him up—after 
severe debate among themselves whether 
they should not behead him on the spot—to 
the toutai of Ningpo. He arrived here in a 
terribly macerated condition, and claimed the 
protection of the British consul. Doubtless 
it became the consul’s duty to grant this pro¬ 
tection, and the man is now in Dr. Parker’s 
hospital. Small advantage, however, will be 
derived by any British merchant from any 
treaty which may ‘ open up China,’ if it 
is to be opened up to European brigands. 
There must be some arrangement among the 
European powers upon this matter.” 

The port of Amoy, Hong-Kong, &c., will 
be reserved for description under the head of 
Insular China. 

Besides the ports opened up by the Nankin 
treaty, there are many other large cities in 
China which might be made accessible to 
commerce under an enlarged treaty, and 
there are many large villages so admirably 


situated, that they would, under the influence 
of Western commerce, soon become great 
cities. 

The Times' correspondent, in travelling to 
Ningpo, passed through a great variety of 
country, and over a vast area where Euro¬ 
peans had never previously set foot, at least 
within recollection of the inhabitants or record 
of history, and the general impressions he 
received are instructive to others. The fol¬ 
lowing is a picture of China and Chinese life, 
drawn from the scenes presented to him as 
he passed along, too vivid and striking not 
to be interesting as a true representation 
of modern China. Leaving Hangchow for 
Ningpo, the journey is thus related:—“ I 
should prove intolerable were I to describe 
the rest of the route with the same minute¬ 
ness with which I have described other portions 
of my journey. We had five days’ journey 
before us, the greater part even less visited 
than Hangchow itself. I must not even ven¬ 
ture to describe the sepulchre of Yu, the 
founder of the Hia dynasty, although it is 
the grandest sepulchral temple in China, and 
boasts an antiquity of two thousand years, 
and although a fierce thunderstorm burst so 
close, that there was a smell of fire, and the 
gigantic idol trembled. Perhaps I may be 
permitted, however, to say, that nearly a 
hundred lineal descendants of the great em¬ 
peror, who controlled the great inundations 
and curbed the waters of the four great rivers, 
still live in poverty under the protection of 
the temple. Under the Ming dynasty they 
received pensions ; the Tartars allow them 
none. Here is a pedigree, ye followers of 
Rollo! Enough to say of Peh-Kwan that 
the people asked us whether we were Siam¬ 
ese. They had seen the Loochooians, and we 
were not like them, and they knew we were 
not Japanese. Chao-hing is for many miles 
round girt with sepulchral monuments. It 
is to the worship of ancestors what Hangchow 
and its lake are to Buddha. All the wharves 
and bridges were crowded by all the popula¬ 
tion of the place as we went through. The 
half-naked bodies seemed countless as we 
moved slowly through canals exactly— 
bridges, smells, and all—like some of the 
back canals in Venice. We passed several 
nights among the most uncultivated crowds 
of boatmen while awaiting our turns to be 
dragged by windlasses over those dykes of 
slippery mud which in China do duty for 
locks. We passed other nights in passing 
through lakes and listening to the songs and 
cymbals which told of marriages in the vil¬ 
lages on its banks. W e watched the paddy 
harvest, examined the tallow-trees, with their 
poplar-like leaf, their green berries, and their 





240 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XT. 


alder-shaped form. We saw the cotton come 
into flower. We fired in vain at two eagles 
circling round the head of a man, who was ac¬ 
companied by a little dog, which they wanted 
to carry off. We stopped and interrogated a 
sort of Chinese Gil Bias, who was travelling 
on foot (almost an unprecedented thing in 
China), and who carried with him all his 
worldly goods—a pair of blue breeches, a 
pipe, and a small teapot. We investigated 
at Yu-Yoa the country from the top of the 
citadel hill, and in the dyer’s shop we exa¬ 
mined the dye wherewith those ever-present 
blue breeches are dyed. After ten days of 
sight-seeing everything seemed to repeat 
itself and to revolve like the events of the 
Platonic year. We became convinced at 
last that if we were to journey from Hang¬ 
chow to Pekin, and from Pekin to Szechuen, 
we should find just the same arts, and man¬ 
ners, and agriculture, varied only by the exi¬ 
gencies of nature.” 

One of the most important cities of the 
interior of China proper is Hangchow. This 
was once the capital, and Chinese patriotism 
and prejudice still regard it with fictitious im¬ 
portance and religious veneration. They have 
a saying—“There is Heaven above, and Pekin 
and Hangchow below.” Descriptions of this 
city are scarce; that of Marco Polo is not 
worthy of reliance; and we have no Euro¬ 
pean accounts, except that given by the Times' 
commissioner of a visit made by him and the 
Rev. Mr. Edkins, of the London Missionary 
Society. Marco Polo says the walls were in 
his day a hundred miles round. The Chinese 
chronicles of the city state that in one of the 
numerous fires which have taken place 
there more than half a million of houses 
were burnt. The writer just quoted main¬ 
tains that the city never could have been 
much larger than it is, and assigns this rea¬ 
son :—“ It stands upon a slip of land about 
three miles wide, intervening between the 
river (which is wider than the Mersey, and 
has thirty feet of water at low tide) and the 
lake. At one end the ground swells into a 
hill, over the crest of which the city wall 
passes. The shape of Hangchow, therefore, 
is very much that of a couch, the hill part 
being represented by the pillows, and being 
the fashionable part of the city.” The vicinity 
is unhealthy, fever and ague being caused by 
the vast quantities of stagnant water collected 
near it, and by the decomposition of vegetable 
matter on the river’s banks. The environs 
contain some good scenery, and very populous 
villages, adorned with temples and pagodas, 
lie in every direction. It is strictly forbidden 
to Europeans to enter this city, but the Times' 
correspondent, accompanied by two mission¬ 


aries (the Rev. Mr. Edkins, and the represen¬ 
tative of the Church Missionary Society), 
determined upon the hazardous enterprise. 
The account given of its accomplishment is 
deeply interesting, and even exciting:— 
“ With a retinue of twelve chair-bearers and 
ten coolies, who followed with our baggage, 
we left our boats during the mid-day heat, 
and, skirting the borders of the lake, reached 
the walls of the city. Here Mr. Edkins, pro¬ 
fiting by his other mishaps, instructed the 
party to avoid the Tartar part of the city and 
the Mauchoo gate. It was an exciting mo¬ 
ment when the first palanquin passed under 
the city gate. From behind my exaggerated 
fan I could see a fat Chinese official, who 
was evidently on duty, but who had his back 
turned to us. The rascal pretended he was 
quite unaware of our presence. I found out 
afterwards that he knew that three English¬ 
men were passing in just as well as we did. 
I breathed more freely when the gate was 
passed, and when we became entangled in 
the narrow streets. They bore us through 
the dirtiest parts of the town, and past the 
yamun, or police office, known by the horrible 
imperial lion scrawled in paint upon the 
opposite wall. The people soon began to 
run together. The blinds of the chairs were 
sufficiently transparent to allow them to see 
there was something unusual; perhaps the 
fact of the chairs being closed was enough in 
itself. Then we grew bolder, and opened the 
blinds, and, although the crowd pressed to 
see, there was no hostile demonstration. At 
last we got to a better part of the city, we 
boldly descended, and found ourselves in the 
streets of Hangchow. We now bade one of 
the coolies guide us to the upper part of the 
city, while the chairs followed. We passed 
several curiosity shops, where there were some 
few things I should have bought, but, alas 1 
our expenses had so far exceeded our expec¬ 
tation, that we were already afraid our funds 
would fall short—a contingency which ac¬ 
tually occurred, for we had to borrow of a 
Chinese innkeeper. I noticed that in one of 
the curiosity shops an English beer-bottle 
was placed among the vases in a post of 
honour. As we ascended the hill we passed 
a tea-house, which was the first I had seen 
in China having any pretensions to ornament. 
This was evidently the Verey of Hangchow. 
A mandarin chair was following us, and we 
drew up to allow the gentleman to overtake 
us. In evident perturbation, he stopped his 
chair, and went into one of the temples, 
where he doubtless expended some cash in 
incense to be delivered from the barbarians. 
We were now among joss-houses and private 
residences, which I had seen from the pagoda 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


241 


Chai>. XT.] 

hill, and from the terrace we could see down 
into the courts and houses of the lower city. 
It was a holiday in Hangchow: there were 
shows going on. We had heard much firing 
in the morning, and we now learnt that there 
had been a review of eight thousand troops, 
and our informants added with much laughter 
that one of the evolutions had been to make 
the soldiers charge right into the river up to 
their armpits. In this part of Hangchow we 
were less thronged than I had ever been 
before in China. There was no apparent 
obstacle to our going where we pleased or 
doing what we pleased. We did not venture 
into the theatre, for we knew by experience, 
at a sing-song on the bank of the lake, that 
the Chinese ladies, with their smart robes, 
their painted faces (white and red upon their 
cheeks, and vermillion on their lips, little 
enamelled stars beside their eyes, and black 
upon their eyebrows), would almost jump out 
of their boxes with fright; while the populace 
would throng about us, and the actors would 
stand still, and stare like the rest. Being a 
little overcome by the sun, I strolled away by 
myself back to the tea-house, and took my 
place at a little table as complacently as I 
should on one of the boulevards; the tea was 
exquisite—that slightly-dried, small, green 
leaf, which you never can taste in England; 
for tea will not keep, or pack, or stand the 
voyage unless burnt up to the state of insi¬ 
pidity in which we get it. I sipped, and was 
refreshed j but the sweet tranquillity was 
not mine. The curious tea-drinkers pressed 
around me, and there was a waiter, whose 
nature it was to walk about with a kettle of 
boiling water, and whose unconquerable 
instinct compelled him to fill' up my cup 
whenever it was getting three degrees below 
boiling-point, and was becoming possible to 
drink. The people were very good-tem¬ 
pered, but they came very close, and the 
day was very hot. I was so Btrict in my 
Chinese costume, that they could find nothing 
to wonder at but m y physique and my pith 
hat. They made the most of these. If I had 
been dressed in European costume, I believe 
they would have undressed me in their ardent 
curiosity. Meantime our coolies and luggage 
had been stopped at the gate we passed 
through. The officials told my man that we 
had acted wrong in not presenting our cards 
and the Foo-tei’s pass, but it was not their 
business, but that of another officer, to stop 
foreigners. They do not wish to, stop Eng¬ 
lishmen’s luggage, but look into the servants’ 
boxes. They asked where the Englishmen 
were gone, and were satisfied when told that 
we had gone up the hill ‘to chinchin joss.’ 
All this talk about cards and passes was of I 
vol. r. 


course Chinese tarradiddles, but it shows that 
the Chinese authorities were perfectly aware 
that they had three Englishmen among them. 
I could find no silk weaving in the city, but 
there must be quarters like the suburbs of 
Lyons, for this is the very centre and depot 
of the silk district. After several hours in 
Hangchow we got into our chairs again, and 
passed through the opposite gate of the city, 
along a dirty faubourg, and over a flat to the 
Tsien-tang River, which is here about two 
miles wide. There is a little custom-house, 
but no ships and no commerce. Hangchow 
evidently depends upon its inland trade, and 
seeks no communication by sea. As we 
crossed the broad river I looked back up this 
picturesque city, and felt that its environs 
were as familiar as those of Liverpool, Chel¬ 
tenham, or Richmond.” 

The cities on the plain from Shanghai to 
Ningpo very much resemble one another. 
The people are employed for the most part 
similarly: they regard Europeans with intense 
curiosity, and although not eager for an open 
trade with them, would readily respond to 
any attempts at traffic if the mandarins would 
permit them. 

The city of Ting-tse is the only other 
great city of China of which much certain 
information exists. It is surrounded by a 
narrow wall and “ wet ditch,” and a small canal 
runs through it. It has four gates into the 
suburbs, and a water-gate for boats which 
bring goods into the city: these discharge 
their cargoes at the mouth of a small river, 
communicating with a canal which runs 
through the place. The upper classes of 
femalea are remarkable for their small feet and 
their extravagant use of cosmetics and paint. 
In their temples they are generally attended 
by a female servant or bondwoman, who car¬ 
ries a little basket containing articles of the 
toilet. During the religious services the 
ladies retire to withdrawing-rooms in connec¬ 
tion with the building, where there are mir¬ 
rors, before which they carefully place them¬ 
selves, re-arrange their attire, and re-tint 
their lips, cheeks, and eyebrows.* In this 
city, more than in any other in China, the 
Chinese wom.en compress the feet of their 
female children, although the Tartars of the 
same city allow the feet of their females to be 
properly developed.]- The timidity of the 
women in the surrounding country at the 
sight of a European is ludicrous. General 
Alexander declares, that whatever be the 
extent of infanticide in China, and however 
inveterate the custom, the women of this 
city are affectionate to their children. 

* Lieutenant-general Alexander, C.B. 

f Reminiscences of a Visit to the Celestial Empire. 

I 1 



242 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


fOHAP. xr. 


Such is China proper, its people, and its 
cities—a country with which our future con¬ 
nection is likely to be more important and 
intimate, as the present war cannot fail to 
issue in the concession, by the Chinese, of more 
extended communication with foreigners. 

Beyond the boundaries of China proper 
immense regions are included in the imperial 
territories. To the north is Mongolia, the 
most remarkable physical feature of which is 
the great desert called Gobi: the word gobi 
is a Mongol term to express a naked desert. 
It extends from the sources of the Amour 
through Mongolia into Little Bokhara and 
Thibet, from north-east to south-west. It 
is nearly two thousand miles in length, the 
average breadth being under five hundred 
miles. This vast region does not appear to 
be appropriately named, for it is not really a 
gobi, or naked desert: there are fine pas¬ 
ture lands within its area. There are large 
districts of sands which do not shift, and 
which are covered in some places sparsely, in 
others thickly, with rank grass. There are 
many small saline lakes within its confines. 
The central portion is the true desert, and 
its extent is vast. The whole district is on 
an average two thousand feet above the level 
of the sea. Parts of it are double that eleva¬ 
tion, and over the very highest for some way 
the route lies for the caravans to and from 
the Russian frontier: these have to traverse 
a waste of shifting sands, most laborious to 
pass through. Accidents sometimes occur, 
attended by loss of life; and blindness, total 
or partial, is frequently an incident of the 
toilsome journey. 

The Mongols are nomadic — no reliable 
accounts of their numbers can be obtained. 
Their religion is Buddhist, and many of them 
are followers of the Grand Lama of Thibet. 
They are governed by tribal chiefs, by the 
spiritual authority of the Lama, and by a 
council of foreign affairs at Pekin. 

The capital of Mongolia is Ourga, situated 
on an affluent of the Selinga River. Kara- 
koum was the capital when the successors of 
Zenghlis Khan held their court, and presided 
over a vast empire. When Kohlai Khan 
conquered China, at the end of the thirteenth 
century, this city was permitted to sink into 
decay. 

Maimachu, on the frontier of Asiatic Rus¬ 
sia, is an important place: it is there that 
the Russians and Chinese transact the com¬ 
mercial exchanges between the two empires. 
The town is not large; it is clean and 
orderly. The boundary between the two 
empires is marked by a long shed, within 
which commercial transactions are conducted. 
A door from this shed on the north side opens i 


into the Russian empire, and, on the south 
side, another opens into the Chinese empire. 
Beneath that shed the teas and rhubarb of 
China are exchanged for Polish linens, wool¬ 
len cloths, and furs. Several German travel¬ 
lers have penetrated from the Russian domi¬ 
nions into those of China on this frontier, and 
some of them relate that the contrast pre¬ 
sented by the habits, manners, and appearance 
of the people on different sides of the frontier 
line is very surprising.* 

East of Mongolia, and north-east of China, 
is Mantchooria : this region is mountainous, 
and nearly covered with forests. The mighty 
river Amour waters this country. Its popu¬ 
lation is scanty: the Mantchoos are more 
civilised than neighbouring tribes. The capi¬ 
tal is Kirin-oula, where the viceroy resides. 
The northern half of the large island of Sa- 
ghalien, off the north-east coast, is committed 
to his government. The reigning family of 
the Chinese empire is Mantchoo: they have 
held the imperial sceptre for two hundred 
years. 

Southward from Mantchooria is the penin¬ 
sula of Corea. This is a quasi-independent 
kingdom, the Chinese emperor never interfer¬ 
ing with its government, but exacting a tri¬ 
bute. Corea is more exclusive in reference 
to foreigners than China. Its capital, situ¬ 
ated in the centre of the peninsula, is King- 
ki-too. 

West of Mongolia, and north-west of China, 
are the countries of the Celestial Moun¬ 
tains, which divides two territories called 
Thian-shan-pe-loo, or the north country, and 
Thian-shan-nan-loo, or the south country. 
The northern region is sometimes called San- 
garia—the southern, Little Bokhara; and 
frequently both regions are described toge¬ 
ther as Chinese Turkistan. The country at 
both sides of the dividing range is well 
watered and fertile. The Chinese hold mili¬ 
tary possession of the country, and collect 
revenue, but leave the people to manage 
their own affairs, who are of the same race 
and religion as the Turks of Europe and 
Asia Minor. 

On the northern side of the Celestial Moun¬ 
tains the town of Goulja is of importance, and 
the chief town of the province. On the south 
side there are several cities of note. The 
capital is Aksou, where the Chinese authori¬ 
ties preside. Yarkand possesses a consider¬ 
able population and commerce. The frontier 
town of Kashgar is occupied by a large Chi¬ 
nese garrison. All these places are situated 
on branches of the great Yarkand River. 

On the west of Mongolia is Thibet, ex¬ 
tending to the borders of those states which 
* Ermau. 




Chap. XI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


243 


are dependent upon the government of Bri¬ 
tish India, or have been recently annexed to 
it. The Chinese give to the whole region 
west of Mongolia the name of Chinghai, 
which is probably the same as the words 
China and Chinese. The Mongols of the 
Koka-nor, and other tribes, inhabit portions 
of these vast territories, but all submit to the 
government of Pekin, of which there is more 
awe than is felt in China proper, or in Pekin 
itself. Writers on the geography and history 
of China generally describe the country called 
Lodakli, on the northern frontier of India, as 
independent of the Pekin government; but 
its independence is merely nominal. 

The wide-spread countries west of Mon¬ 
golia are hounded by the Kuenlun and Hima¬ 
laya mountain systems, and consist of lofty 
plains. The declivities of the Himalayas on 
the side of Thibet are not steep, although on 
the side of India the country descends with so 
deep a depression. Very little is known of 
these countries: the court of Pekin is even 
more jealous of strangers crossing from the 
Indian frontier than of persons penetrating 
into China proper by sea. 

Many of the mighty rivers which water 
Eastern and Southern Asia have their sources 
in these regions. It is remarkable that the 
Canges, Indus, Brahmapootra, Sutlej, and 
Irriwaddy, receive their waters from springs 
on the northern side of the Himalayas; the 
streams, as they seek the level, winding their 
course to the southern slopes, and finally 
sweeping onward in increasing volume to the 
6ultry plains of India. The great rivers 
Yang-tse-Kiang, Hoang-ho, and Cambodia, 
which take a south-eastern course, also have 
their sources in the great western Mongolian 
highlands. 

The language of Thibet is not so mono¬ 
syllabic as the Chinese, and is supposed to be 
a link between it and the Semitic tongues: 
the Thibetians profess it to be derived from 
the Sanscrit.* 

The religion of Thibet and Mongolia is 
Buddhism. The Grand Lama is the spiritual 
chief of Thibet. It is believed by the people 
that he has maintained his spiritual reign at 
the capital ever since a period corresponding 
with the Christian era.f This is supposed 
to he accomplished by a series of transforma¬ 
tions, as when one lama dies, the spirit of 
Buddha Lakya is transferred to another body. 
This is ascertained by a series of revelations 
vouchsafed to certain hierarchs, after many 
ceremonies of an absurd kind, and while the 
sacred vehicles of revelation are in a state 
of intoxication by a particular spirit. The 
Emperor of China, however, takes care to 
* Captain Turner. j Abdul Russool. 


hold in his own hands the confirmation of the 
election, lest it should fall upon any person 
inconvenient to his government. If no objec¬ 
tion he entertained by his celestial majesty, 
the new incarnation of Buddha is installed in 
his high office, and becomes the Dela * Lama. 
The general impression in Europe is that 
this is the only functionary of this sort in the 
world: such an impression is erroneous. 
There are three in Bhotan, who are clothed 
in white; and three in Mongolia and Thibet, 
of whom the Dela Lama is one, clothed in 
yellow: the latter is the orthodox colour, 
being patronised by the Emperor of China. 
The great Mongol lama is of still higher 
authority than the Dela Lama,f but he ap¬ 
pears to derive that superiority from the 
policy of the Chinese emperor: the Dela 
Lama is more reverenced throughout Thibet, 
and is adored as a god.| Every chief of a 
great Buddhist convent appears to obtain the 
title of lama; hut the Grand Lama at Lassa, 
and the Lama of Tehoo Loomboo, are the 
supreme hierarchs of Buddhism. 

The intercourse between Thibet and British 
India is considerable, so far as the influx of 
Thibetians—or, as the Hindoos call them, 
Bhotians§—is concerned, for the inhabitants 
resort to all the great places of pilgrimage in 
Bengal, such as Orissa, Gaya, Benares, Allah¬ 
abad, &c. They believe that Benares is the 
seat of supreme learning, that “the holy city” 
is the source of all science and literature, and 
that the people of Thibet derived religion 
and learning originally from India. Of this 
there is no proof, but such a belief may well pre¬ 
vail from the superstitious regard cherished for 
India, in consequence of the religion of Thibet 
having been derived thence. On one of the 
highest accessible peaks of the Himalayas the 
Thibetians mingle with pilgrims from all 
parts of India, and even from Ceylon, to per¬ 
form various rites together, which would ap¬ 
pear to he incompatible with two religions 
so adverse as Buddhism and Brahminism in 
many respects are. This circumstance has 
excited the surprise of authors and travellers, 
hut the philosophy of it appears to he that all 
striking phenomena of nature — mountains, 
river sources, junctions of rivers, lakes, desert 
rocks, forests, and the heavenly bodies—receive 
homage in the idolatrous associations common 

* This word signifies both a sea and a desert, and pro¬ 
bably refers to the appearance of the great plains of 
Thibet, the sphere of the lama’s government. John 
Bell’s Travels in Asia. 

f M. De Lange, Representative of the Court of Russia 
at Pekin, 1721-22. 

4 Histoire Genealogique des Tartares. 

§ As remarked on a former page, the Hindoos call 
both sides of the whole Himalaya range Bhotia: they do 
not use the word 'Thibet.— Rennell. 



244 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


to all Asia, whatever the creeds of the people, 
except where Christianity or Mohammedanism 
has extirpated the traditional feeling. 

Commerce also brings the people of Thibet 
into intimate intercourse with the frontier 
nations of British India. Through Nepaul, 
Bhotia, and Assam, the products of Thibet 
are exchanged for those of the rich provinces 
of Hindoostan and Bengal. Many of the 
productions of India find their way to China 
by way of Thibet. 

There is also a considerable trade between 
Mongolia and Russia, and it would be far 
more extensive but for the encroaching spirit 
of the Russians, who are always intruding 
upon Chinese territory in the most unscru¬ 
pulous manner, and in violation of numerous 
treaties. A writer at the beginning of this 
century thus describes the method of carrying 
on the commerce between Mongolia, through 
which the produce of Thibet and of China 
proper is conveyed to the Russian fron¬ 
tier :—“ The commerce between Russia and 
China is at present a monopoly belonging to 
the treasury of Siberia, no other subjects of 
Russia being allowed to concern themselves 
in it, on pain of death, unless employed on 
account of the crown, although this law is 
often evaded by connivance of the weywodes 
on the frontier places. By virtue of the last 
treaty, they can send no more than one cara¬ 
van a year from Russia to Pekin, which doth 
not consist of more than two hundred persons 
instead of a thousand and more, which they 
amounted to heretofore, and which were sub¬ 
sisted at the charge of the Chan of China 
whilst they were on the territories of China; 
but now they are to subsist on their own 
charges.” * The last-named feature of this 
regulation was by Russian authority, and 
shows that while every effort was made by 
the czars to plunder the Chinese of their 
Mongolian territory, commerce was even less 
encouraged sixty years ago than it had before 
been. 

In the days of Peter the Great, the Russian 
government made strenuous efforts to open 
up through Mongolia a traffic by which they 
might derive the products of that country, of 
Thibet (generally included under the name 
of Mongolia), and of the lower provinces, in 
exchange for their furs, which the Russians 
then possessed more abundantly as a means 
of barter. The Chinese responded as eagerly 
to such overtures, and a commercial inter¬ 
course was established, which, had Russia 
improved, would have grown to great magni¬ 
tude, and which has been checked solely by 
the greed of territory, which led the Russians 
perpetually to ferment boundary disputes, 
* Bell. 


[Chap.-XI, 

provoking on the part of the Chinese counter¬ 
acting measures. 

The Chinese at that time, according to the 
testimony of Peter’s own agent resident at 
Pekin, brought many articles of exchange to 
the frontier. Gold from Thibet, ivory and 
peacocks’ feathers brought by the Thibetians 
from India, and woollen cloth of two qualities 
—one a fine fleecy commodity, the other 
rough and coarse—made in Thibet and other 
'Mongolian districts, were conveyed to the 
rendezvous of Russian commerce, through 
long and wearisome journeys. A. sort of 
glazed cotton cloth, called hitaika, made in 
China, was at that time a favourite Russian 
import. 

It appears that the productions of Corea 
were brought by a very circuitous route 
through China, at that period consisting of 
paper made of raw silk; fine mats ; cut 
tobacco, very fine, for smoking, deemed supe¬ 
rior to that grown in China; striped cotton 
stuffs, &c. It would appear, also, that while 
the Chinese imported furs from the Russians, 
they also received furs from Corea, which 
were given in exchange for Russian furs. 
The Russians received Chinese damask, 
Indian cotton goods by way of Thibet, tea, 
porcelain, silk for linings, and “white copper” 
dishes.* 

The intercourse between Thibet and China 
proper, and the government of the former, 
was regulated by a minister who resided at 
Lassa, whose approval was necessary before 
any measure, political or commercial, could be 
adopted. This functionary was, however, 
obliged to refer to Pekin for instructions 
and for final approval of any measures to 
which he gave his consent. “ The council 
for the affairs of the Mongols at Pekin is a 
college, who have the care of everything 
regarding the nation of the Mongols, as well 
those who are the hereditary subjects of the 
Emperor of China, as also those who are 
only under the protection of this empire. 
This college, at the same time, enters in¬ 
directly into the cognizance of all the affairs 
which regard the powers who border on 
China, from the north-east to the west, whence 
it comes that they are the court who have 
most to do of any in China.” f 

In explanation of this mode of governing 
remote provinces and dependencies, De Lange 
in 1723 writes:—“In China all is done by 
the disposition of different colleges, to whose 
cognizance the affairs may belong, it not 
being permitted to address the court directly 

* M. De Lange. 

f This description of the conduct of Mongolian affairs 
at Pekin was given b,y a minister of Peter the Great of 
Russia, and it is still applicable. 



Chap. XI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


245 


upon any affair whatever. In the time of 
the last Chinese emperor, these colleges were 
so absolute, that, on many occasions, the 
emperor himself dared not meddle with their 
decrees; but, since the Tartar, princes have 
been in possession of the throne of China, 
they are not much regarded; witness the 
exercise of all sorts of foreign religions pub¬ 
licly authorised, and the allowance of a Rus¬ 
sian agent at Pekin, agreed to by the sole 
good pleasure of the emperor, in opposition 
to the remonstrances of his ministers, and to 
the constitution of the government of China.” 
The emperors have ever since maintained a 
stern authority in reference to these colleges. 

The people of Thibet are loyal to the Chi¬ 
nese emperor, religion being the great con¬ 
necting link. They are not brave or enter¬ 
prising, and would be very unlikely to make 
a successful insurrection. A few thousand 
Chinese soldiers, in half-a-dozen garrisons, 
occupy the country. A considerable army 
could, however, be collected on an emergency, 
as the Nepaulese found to their cost, on occa¬ 
sion of their invasion of Thibet. The social 
condition of the people is very immoral: 
polyandria exists, and similar in every respect 
to its practice at Ceylon, and with the same 
moral consequences. The Thibetians, how¬ 
ever, are not jealous, as are the Cingalese ; 
on the contrary, the infidelity of the women 
excites neither surprise nor resentment. The 
Thibetians are cold and phlegmatic in all 
their habits, and are sunk in the most abject 
superstition. 

The climate is sternly cold for a large por¬ 
tion of the year, and the country is exposed to 
fierce winds, which sweep over the vast elevated 
table-lands, dispersing the thin soil, and often 
totally destroying the hopes of the cultivator. 
There are, however, many places low-lying 
and sheltered, where the climate is most 
delightful; and on the northern and eastern 
slopes of the Himalayas there are regions 
where the scenery and the climate rival those 
of most lands. There are sequestered dells 
and dales in these regions, the floral riche3 of 
which almost rival those of the sunny valleys 
on the southern declivities. 

The revenue of the country is derived 
from land-rent and the gold mines, which are 
badly worked.* The mineral treasures of 
the region are supposed to be very great, but 
are not yet developed. Nitre is found in 
great abundance, and most metals in mode¬ 
rate quantities, except silver. On the fron¬ 
tiers of China proper there are coal mines, 
which are of immense value to the people, for 
Thibet is very bare of timber, and the climate 
requires the extensive iise of fuel. 

* A.b<lul Russool. 


The animals are very various, and some of 
them very beautiful. The celebrated shawl - 
goat, and different species of sheep and deer 
abound. 

Lassa is the capital of this region: it is 
forty-five days’ journey from Pekin, and two 
hundred miles north from the north-east 
corner of Assam. It is geographically situ¬ 
ated 29° 30' north latitude, 91° 6' east longi¬ 
tude. It is built on the north bank of a small 
river, and is of an oval form, four miles in 
length, and one in breadth. In the centre 
stands the grand temple, the high sanctuary 
of Buddhism. Each idol of the numerous 
objects of worship collected there has its own 
peculiar compartment. Around this collec¬ 
tion of buildings a road separates it from the 
rest of the. city. There is always a popula¬ 
tion of about two thousand Chinese, about 
three thousand Nepaulese, and a few hundred 
Cashmerians, besides the natives. It is im¬ 
possible to estimate the native population, as 
pilgrims from the whole of Thibet perpetually 
crowd the place, and also numerous devotees 
from every part of Mongolia, of China, and 
all the realms of Buddhism. The Tartars 
appear to have invaded and plundered the 
city repeatedly, but never remained long. 
Little can be gleaned of its history, or of that 
of the race which inhabits it. 

Within one hundred and eighty miles of 
the Rungpore district in Bengal there is a 
small town, called Teshoo Loomboo, where 
a great Buddhist monastery gives the place 
notoriety, and where the “ Teshoo Lama ” 
has his seat: he is the high priest of the 
Chinese emperor. This neighbourhood is 
more fertile and civilised, and some timber 
grows there. There are mines of lead, cin¬ 
nabar, copper, and gold, in the hills which 
bound the great plain upon which the city 
stands. Nearly four thousand gylongs were 
occupied in daily prayer towards the close of 
the last century, when Captain Turner visited 
it: this number has probably increased since. 

Throughout Thibet, and Little Thibet, and 
Lahdack, the number of monasteries and 
lmnneries containing devotees of the Bud¬ 
dhist belief is surprising: the number of gods 
and saints mingled in strange variance with 
the theory of the Buddhist creed exceeds 
computation, and justifies the statement that 
Thibet is one of the most superstitious coun¬ 
tries on the face of the globe. The accounts 
given by Macartney and Colebrook apply as 
correctly in the present' day as when they 
were written, for everything in Thibet is as it 
were stereotyped, except that the gods, the 
saints, and the monasteries, increase in num¬ 
ber, and the people in superstition. Never¬ 
theless, the country exercises a vast influence 



246 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XT. 


over other regions of Asia. China regards 
Thibet as holy land: the Mongols, Calmucks, 
and Tartars, hold it in the greatest reverence. 
The Thibetians declare that to them the 
Chinese are indebted for science and art, 
while they speak of India as the source from 
which they derived these advantages. They 
claim to be the inventors of printing, and to 
have taught it to the Chinese; but they 
admit that no improvement in this art lias 
been made for two thousand years. They 
declare that astronomy, and astrology, which 
they regard as a noble science, have flou¬ 
rished in their country from time immemo¬ 
rial, and that the Chinese were their pupils in 
these matters. A British officer, who visited 
Thibet some years ago, stated that the monks 
discoursed with him about the satellites of 
Jupiter and the ring of Saturn, and that they 
were familiar with stellar phenomena to a 
degree which greatly astonished him. An 
invasion of Thibet from British India would 
issue in the subjugation with ease of the 
whole realm, for however impracticable long 
marches in such a country, yet facility of 
conquest would exist in the fact, that whoever 
possesses the sacred cities, and the persons of 
the lamas, are the conquerors of Thibet. 

Having described the vast regions beyond 
China proper, Insular China remains to be 
noticed. The insular climate of China is less 
subject to the extremes of heat and cold than 
that of the continent. The islands which are 
of most importance are Formosa, Hainan, 
Chusan, Hong-Kong, Heang-shan, and Amoy. 

Formosa lies off the east coast, and from 
its comparative proximity to the Malay pen¬ 
insula, its eastern shore is inhabited by that 
race, who are generally regarded as abori¬ 
gines : the western side of the island is in¬ 
habited by the Chinese. The population at 
large, especially on the eastern shore, is re¬ 
garded by the inhabitants of China as bar¬ 
barous. The word Formosa means beautiful, 
and was given to the island by the Portu¬ 
guese, because of its lovely appearance. Coal 
in great abundance has been recently found 
upon it. 

Hainan is an island situated on the southern 
coast, inhabited partly by Chinese, and partly 
by aboriginal tribes. There is nothing suffi¬ 
ciently striking in the characteristics of the 
island to call for remark. 

Heang-shan is an island in the Canton 
River. The Portuguese settlement of Macao, 
called by the Chinese Aou-mun (the entrance 
to the bay), is situated upon part of the 
island which forms a peninsula. The site of 
the settlement was given to the Portuguese 
by the emperor nearly three hundred years 
ago, in consequence of services rendered by 


them against pirates. The poet Camoens 
resided at Macao, and wrote there his cele¬ 
brated poem “the Lusiad.” The population 
is about thirty thousand. The general con¬ 
duct of the Portuguese settlers has been 
fraudulent and rapacious, and much of the 
ill will entertained by the natives of Canton 
against foreigners has been caused by their 
cruel and treacherous conduct. The Portu¬ 
guese residents of Macao are not more than 
six thousand: the rest of the population are 
half-castes and Chinese. Few places which, 
within a century and a half, have been the 
scenes of enterprise, are so deserted and fallen 
as is this settlement. Formerly it was one 
of the richest emporiums of the East: now 
Hong-Kong seems to have extinguished its 
commercial glory. A few English and other 
foreign merchants are almost the only persons 
respected by the natives, so completely have 
the Portuguese lost character. 

It is common for the foreign merchants of 
Canton and Hong-Kong to spend the hottest 
summer months on this island: there is a 
beautiful bathing place, and large although 
not well-built houses are easily procured, and 
cheaply rented. The foreign and Parsee 
burial-grounds are picturesque, especially the 
former: how enterprising are those old Persian 
devotees of the sun!—there are few places in 
the East which are ancient haunts of commerce 
where their traces or their presence are not 
seen. It is surprising that Europeans think 
so favourably of Macao in a sanitary point of 
view, for the atmosphere is damp, and a 
chilly feeling is consequently imparted to the 
residents even when the glass is high: it is 
also common for foreigners to die soon after 
their arrival, especially if young men. 

The Portuguese population is considered 
devoid of the activity which once character¬ 
ised them. They are much deteriorated in 
personal appearance, especially the females, 
who have coarse countenances and very dark 
completions. The streets are' little better 
than gloomy narrow alleys, and, being some¬ 
times of great length, the appearance they 
present is peculiarly unpleasant. There are 
palaces and public buildings, formerly the 
abodes of bishops and governors of rank, or 
the resort of merchants and men of business, 
but these are all dropping, little by little, into 
decay. The Portuguese deserve credit for 
the architectural beauty of these buildings, 
particularly of a church, the front of which is 
alone left standing. Beautiful walks, parades, 
and gardens, all which were once beautiful, 
also testify to the taste which once character¬ 
ised the Portuguese of Macao. The parades 
are partially broken, deep ruts are allowed to 
deface the once-pleasant walks, and the gar- 





IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


247 


Chap. XI.] 

dens already assume that waste and ragged 
appearance which the fairest pleasure-grounds 
so soon wear when left without suitable care. 
The house of Camoens, who sang before 
Shakspere’s “wild notes,” as Milton called 
them, were heard in England, is still stand¬ 
ing, although time, with his furrowing finger, 
has touched it. The fortifications bristle with 
cannon, but they are worthless ; a few British 
broadsides would leave them heaps of rubbish. 
A gentleman who lately visited the island and 
city thus wrote of some of the features of 
interest which mark them:—“ To me the old 
palace garden, with so many acres of still 
blooming flowers and foliage, and paths 
winding through quaint arbours and huge 
stone caves,—more solid than the artificial 
ruins of Bolton Abbey or Chatsworth,—was 
the most pleasing part of my tour. I was 
never tired of musing over the grounds, but 
did not remain long soliloquising over the 
iron-walled monmnent of the poet Camoens. 
I did not expect to find such old magnificence, 
but ruins of ages past do not at such distance 
from Christian lands increase my love of 
decay. From the top of one of the mammoth 
stone arbours we had a fine view of the old 
town and the inner and .outer harbour; the 
former is stocked with junks and lorchas be¬ 
longing to the place, and the yearly income 
of the latter in freights alone is said to be a 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. We saw 
the islands round about, and were glad to 
look upon scenery as romantic as it was 
novel.” * 

The same traveller gives a picture of how 
the coolie traffic—or what may be with pro¬ 
priety be termed the Chinese slave trade—is 
patronised by the Portuguese, who have ever 
been the active abettors of the slave trade in 
all its forms :—“ Looking down upon the 
Chinese part of the town, I saw a large cas¬ 
tellated building, the courtyard of which was 
crowded with human beings dressed in white. 
My curiosity was excited. Was it an hos¬ 
pital? No. A lunatic asylum? No. A 
jail, a charity-school, or what? No one 
could tell. We searched and searched, but 
could not make the people understand our 
wants; finally,. we got a boat, and moved 
round to the portcullis, but there was no ad¬ 
mittance. Inquiry only made us more curious, 
but not more successful, until at last a friend 
relieved us of suspense, and told us that of 
course no one was permitted to enter—it was 
a private institution, being the place where a 
princely merchant stows away his coolies until 
they are ready for shipment! When I saw 
them from the garden highlands it was pro¬ 
bably feeding-time. At Whampoa they use 
* Young America Abroad. 


a hulk for this purpose. Poor wretches! 
they little know what is to be their fate.” 

While Mr. Train remained at Macao he 
witnessed a ctistom which he saw in other 
parts of China, the description of which is 
striking :—“ We came back through the Chi¬ 
nese town, where with restless activity me¬ 
chanics were working at their respective 
trades, shopmen were doing a thriving busi¬ 
ness, while barbers were never busier; there 
were music and dancing, with the sing-song 
artists, never more enthusiastic, and the 
pawnbrokers were crowded to suffocation, for 
to-morrow is the Chinaman’s New Year, and 
hence the unusual bustle and excitement in 
the town: before midnight all accounts must 
be squared, all books balanced, all bills paid, 
and debtor and creditor must meet as friends, 
for it is the custom of China to close up the 
papers and make a clean breast of finance 
matters at the commencement of every new 
year. At every turn I see anxious faces, and 
men rushing with some little trinket to the 
Shylock’s den, in order to raise a little more 
cash. There are many who know not what 
to do, for their pockets are empty, and their 
debts unpaid, and something must be done 
before the clock strikes twelve, or else they 
are disgraced in the eyes of their countrymen. 
Some bear the marks of desperation on their 
faces, and hence robbery or murder, perhaps 
suicide, ere the bell tolls the fatal hour; for 
'tis no unusual thing to resort to violent 
measures if all else fail, and there be bills 
unpaid. What a strange custom! and yet it 
is universally followed from the sea-coast, to 
the limits of Tartary. If Western nations 
balanced accounts as often, there would be 
less rottenness in finance, and more honesty 
in commerce. Here, at least, the idol wor¬ 
shipper teaches a lesson it were well if we 
would learn.” 

The island of Amoy affords an important 
position for any European power desirous of 
having a naval and military post off the Chi¬ 
nese coast; for it is well situated in reference 
to the great ports, and possesses a compara¬ 
tively equable climate. The London press, 
particularly “ the leading journal,” strongly 
urged upon the government of Lord Derby, 
in 1858, the occupation of this island as a post 
for the security of English commerce. The 
island is about twelve miles in length, and 
ten in breadth, and contains within that 
small area a hundred and thirty villages and 
hamlets, and a population of nearly half a 
million persons. The city contains nearly 
two hundred thousand inhabitants ; it is called 
after the island. 

This little island is very picturesque, the 
surface being undulated from the sea-shore to 



248 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


f Chap. XI, 


a central rocky ridge of considerable eleva¬ 
tion, upon the top of which there is a well 
cultivated table-land several miles square. 
The rock is black, of a grey tint when 
broken, but that tint gives place to black 
after exposure to the atmosphere. The port 
is capable of holding one thousand vessels. 

The city is situated in latitude 24° 32' 
north, and longitude 118° 8' east. It is built 
on a promontory, so as to expose three sides 
to the sea, and is necessarily long and strag¬ 
gling. The citadel is surrounded by a wall 
one mile in circumference. The palace and 
gardens of the Se-tak occupy a considerable 
portion of the inner city, beyond the wall of 
which dirty narrow lanes and low ill-con¬ 
structed houses stretch away in every direc¬ 
tion. The Chinese authorities are peculiarly 
strict in not allowing foreigners to traverse 
the island, insisting that “ the day’s journey,” 
which, according to the treaty, was to be 
allowed for purposes of inland business at the 
ports, being interpreted to mean from sunrise 
to sunset. No foreigner is allowed to spend a 
night in any of the villages, yet the people of 
these villages have shown a more free dispo¬ 
sition to foreigners, and especially to mission¬ 
aries, than has been shown elsewhere. The 
local authorities are also very friendly, but 
the orders of the supreme government are 
imperative against giving any encouragement 
t.o foreigners beyond what the strictest ren¬ 
dering of the treaty entitles them to demand. 
Although the climate is equable, and the 
island has the reputation among the Chinese 
of being healthy, yet the city is not so, and 
terrible havoc has been made among the mis¬ 
sionaries and their families by the insalu¬ 
brious influences prevailing there. 

Chusan is another island which public opi¬ 
nion in England and in India has demanded 
the government to occupy during the Chinese 
contest of 1858. It is situated at the southern 
entrance to the estuary of the Yang-tse- 
Kiang. The island is very fertile and pretty, 
but small. It is surrounded by a vast archi¬ 
pelago of lesser isles. Few small islands are 
so populous. 

Hong-Kong is the only territorial acquisi¬ 
tion made by the British in the Chinese em¬ 
pire. The name means “sweet waters.” 
The islet is about twenty-five miles in circuit, 
and is situated at the mouth of the estuary 
which conducts to Canton, which is a hun¬ 
dred miles distant ; Macao is forty miles from 
the island. The strait which separates it from 
the mainland is in some places less than a 
mile wide. Safe anchorage for ships is afforded 
by the Bay of Hong-Kong on a large scale. 
When, in 1842, the British acquired the 
island, there were not more than a thousand 


inhabitants; in 1858 the number has increased 
to a hundred thousand. 

The capital is called Victoria; it is the 
seat of a governor, and is an episcopal see. 
It is built in the form of a semicircle, upon 
the bay, the buildings extending for four or 
five miles on either side from the centre of 
the arc. The streets extend back as far as 
the mountain will allow; and as street rises 
above street on the ascent, they present a 
most interesting picture to a person beholding 
from the bay, while from the houses at the 
base of the mountain a magnificent panorama 
is presented of the town and bay, with the 
vast throng of commercial shipping, vessels 
of war, and innumerable fishing-boats, which 
generally keep “two and two,” in order the 
more effectually to trawl their nets—contri¬ 
buting by this arrangement to the novelty 
and picturesque character of the scene. The 
country along the shores of the bay—sand, 
rock, and hill—adds to the general effect of 
this prospect. 

The approach to the island is not prepos¬ 
sessing ; the high grounds of Hong-Kong 
and the neighbouring islets look bleak and 
barren, but when the passenger arrives at the 
town of Victoria he experiences a most agree¬ 
able surprise, its fine buildings, sloping ascent, 
and the magnificent highlands beyond, afford¬ 
ing a coup d’ceil of a most pleasing kind. 
On landing, the stranger is struck by the 
proximity of the mountain to the city, over¬ 
hanging it in a manner calculated to excite 
alarm for its future safety in case of earth¬ 
quake, or any extraordinary season of heat or 
cold, by which the impending rocks might be 
lowered and hurled upon the houses beneath. 
Some of the newest houses, and even streets, 
have been built up the mountain’s side. 
There are several good public buildings— 
such as government house, Bishop’s College, 
and the Chinese chapel and school attached 
to it; also a Chinese printing-office, the differ¬ 
ent mission schools and churches, the hospital, 
church, club, barracks, military stores, and 
some of the merchants’ establishments. The 
settlers and the Chinese are fond of giv¬ 
ing fancy names to pleasant places in the 
vicinity—such as “ Spring Gardens,” “ Happy 
Valley,” &c. The public establishments are 
chiefly on the western side of the bay, called 
Western Point. Eastern Point is less public, 
and more picturesque. A Chinese boat-popu¬ 
lation—similar to that at Canton and other 
great cities built on large rivers on the sea¬ 
board—has already gathered at Hong-Kong. 

The following notice of the habits of both 
the British and Chinese population is from 
the correspondent of the New York Herald 
in 1857:—“ The club-house is most creditable 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST 


249 


Chap. XL] 

to the place, and the stranger not caring for 
the hotel is most comfortably off if introduced 
by any of his friends who may be members. 
A good library and all the English periodicals 
are on the tables and in the bookcase; and 
good chow-chow, good beds, and good attend¬ 
ance, can be purchased for about three 
dollars per day; but in China most gentle¬ 
men are immediately taken possession of by 
those who may be known to them, and then, 
of course, you make their house your home. 
Not to have a spare bed or two for the new 
comer would be considered contrary to the 
established usage of the land. You cannot 
but feel the greatest possible interest in wit¬ 
nessing the untiring industry of this race, so 
little known among Western nations. Women 
and men, and sometimes even little children, 
are hard at work making combs, trunks, or 
shoes; some chopping up meat, others arrang¬ 
ing their vegetables; now it is a party of 
masons erecting a bamboo-stage, and then a 
chain-gang grading the hill at the point of 
the Hindoostanee soldier’s bayonet; now 
coolies carrying water, an enormous load; 
then sedan chairs, borne by two or four; 
boys hawking about candies and sweetmeats ; 
boatmen and house-servants coming and going 
all dressed in that peculiar national blue, wide 
trousers and Blucher jacket, and their long 
tail either wound about their head or trailing 
down behind. The streets of Hong-Kong 
offer a thousand subjects for reflection to those 
who have never been thrown in contact with 
the celestial race.” 

The same writer was struck by the resem¬ 
blance of the island to certain auriferous dis¬ 
tricts both in California and Australia. 

The government is conducted by a lieute¬ 
nant-governor, chief-justice, and council of 
five. The first-named is the chief ordinary 
British official in China, as he superintends 
the trade of the cinque ports, and controls the 
subjects and ships of England in Chinese 
waters. The present lieutenant-governor is 
Sir John Bowring, a man of extensive learn¬ 
ing and superior business habits. He is not 
a favourite with the missionaries in China, 
nor with the classes in England which send 
them there, and their distaste seems to have 
been provoked more by the tone which the 
lieutenant-governor has adopted than by any 
hostile acts. When in England he was iden¬ 
tified with the Manchester school, in the in¬ 
terest of which he was returned for the Lan¬ 
cashire borough of Bolton. Sir John, then 
Dr. Bowring, was president of the Peace 
Society, and frequently expressed opinions on 
the subject of war utterly inconsistent with 
his official duties as the lieutenant-governor of 
Hong-Ivong. This inconsistency has deprived 

VOL. i. 


him of the confidence of large classes at home, 
while his policy in China and his commercial 
intelligence have won for him the trust of the 
merchants in China both British and foreign. 

The Chinese population of Hong-Kong is 
truculent and seditious, partaking of the worst 
spirit prevalent at Canton. The English are 
readily served for money; but the real feeling 
of the whole Chinese population is a desire— 
at all costs, and by any means, however san¬ 
guinary or treacherous—to get rid of their 
presence. During the war in 1857 their 
attempts to poison the British population at 
Hong-Kong, and their schemes, more than 
once successful, to gain a footing on board 
ships as passengers, in order to murder the 
Europeans, and seize the ships, proved them 
to be at heart brutal and cowardly, however 
they might feign obedience and quietness. 

The habits and customs of the people are 
as purely and obstinately Chinese as if they 
were not resident on British soil. As at 
Singapore, so at Hong-Kong, they retain their 
distinctive peculiarities as tenaciously as if 
they resided in Pekin. Various efforts to 
induce them to conform to British habits in 
food and attire have been made, for sake of 
the convenience of such conformity, but with¬ 
out success. The Hong-Kong Chinamen are 
as fond of rice and tea, taken after their 
national mode, as their compatriots at Shan¬ 
ghai or Ningpo. Their idea of the way in 
which the latter article should be used has 
probably never been so happily expressed as 
by an imperial poet of their country:— 
“Graceful are the leaves of mei-hoa, sweetly 
scented and clear ai’e the leaves of fo-cheou. 
But place upon a gentle fire the tripod whose 
colour and form tell of a far antiquity, and fill 
it with water of molten snow. Let it seethe 
till it would be hot enough to whiten fish 
or to redden a crab. Then pour it into a 
cup, made from the earth of yue, upon the 
tender leaves of a selected tea-tree. Let it 
rest till the mists which freely rise have 
formed themselves into thicker clouds, and 
until these have gradually ceased to weigh 
upon the surface, and at last float in their 
vapour. Then sip deliberately the delicious 
liquor; it will drive away all the five causes 
of disquietude which come to trouble us. 
You may taste, and you may feel, but never 
can you express in words or song that sweet 
tranquillity we draw from the essence thus 
prepared.” 

It is remarkable that not only at Hong- 
Kong, but at all tbe trading ports, an attempt 
is made to speak English, which, after a little 
practice, enables English and Chinese to con¬ 
verse with ease for all ordinary practical pur¬ 
poses. At Canton and Hong-Kong this is 

K K 





250 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XI. 


called “ Canton English,” but at the other 
ports, and at Singapore and Malacca, it is 
called “Pigeon English.” Certainly no other 
oriental nation has made such indefatigable 
and successful efforts to establish a medium 
of verbal communication with the English, 
based on English words. 

Such is a general description of an empire 
with which we have been repeatedly at war— 
are at war while these pages are issuing 
from the press; within whose insular empire 
we have established ourselves ; upon the con¬ 
fines of whose territories our Indian empire 
touches; and with which w r e are likely to hold 
still more important relations in the future. 
A few remarks in reference to their general 
condition will fitly close this chapter. 

As to the present aspect of our commerce 
with the Chinese empire, commercial men 
may form their deductions from these facts :— 

At the end of the commercial year 1854 the balance of 
trade between China and Great Britain was estimated at 
seven millions nine hundred thousand dollars, or two 
millions sterling, against China. 

The estimate stands thus:— 

IMPORTS FROM GREAT BRITAIN AND INDIA. 


Dollars. 

Opium, 65,000 to 70,000 chests .... 24,000,000 

Cotton, 200,000 bales. 4,000,000 

Manufactures, &c. 4,000,000 

Straits and India. 1,600,000 

Total. 33,600,000 

EXPORTS TO GREAT BRITAIN AND HER COLONIES. 

Dollars. 

Tea, 85,000,000 lbs. 15,000,000 

Silk, 40,000 bales. 9,200,000 

Sundries. 1,500,000 


Total. 25,700,000 


During the succeeding three years the exports to Great 
Britain have greatly increased. 

In the commercial year 1856-7 the export of teas to 
England and her colonies was 87,741,000 lbs.; and in 
the same year the deliveries in England of China silk 
amounted to 74,215 bales. 

In the chapter on the general commerce of 
India the relations of that part of our empire 
with China, especially in connection with the 
opium trade, will be discussed. 

It is important to inquire whether the 
government of that country is likely to im¬ 
prove, and whether it presents a prospect of 
stability as to its principles, form, and dynasty. 
It does not possess the affections of the people. 
The emperor is more feared than loved—more 
reverenced with a superstitious regard to the 
sacredness of his person and functions than 
intelligently respected. The imperial throne 
has more authority, and is regarded with 
more affection, along the northern slopes of 
the Himalayas, or among the rovers of the 


Mongolian deserts, than in China proper. 
The relation of the government to its remoter 
provinces is paternal; to its home provinces 
oppressive. The industry of the people, 
although persevering, is repressed, and the 
fiscal system is exacting and urgent. Every¬ 
where there are traces of decay, and only the 
untiring labour of the people prevents a rapid 
retrocession in agriculture, manufactures, and 
general wealth. The faifthful testimony of 
an eyewitness at the close of 1857 records 
such impressions when beholding the energy of 
the people and the effects of a bad and oppres¬ 
sive government, and the predominant origi¬ 
nality of the Chinese race asserting itself in 
connection with all imported ideas, religious, 
scientific, and social :—“ I notice everywhere 
the same lavish expenditure of labour in paving 
the footpaths and bridging the dykes with 
slabs of limestone or granite. The pagoda, 
from the galleries of which nothing is visible 
but the limitless flat plain and the frequent 
villages, is of course a thing comparatively of 
yesterday. The Buddhists brought the form 
from India not long before the birth of 
Christ; but these products of untiring toil, 
these mounds and dykes, these countless 
masses of enormous stones brought from afar, 
—still more those practical, matter-of-fact, 
Sabbathless, business-loving, pleasure-despis¬ 
ing habits of mind, which, under a less cor¬ 
rupt and depressing system of rule, would 
lead the present race of Chinese to sustain 
these works and to create others—that insen¬ 
sibility to play of fancy, yet love of quaint 
conceits and forced antitheses—that incapa¬ 
city to feel grace and beauty, yet strong 
appreciation of mere geometrical symmetry— 
that complete disconnection from (not diver¬ 
gence from) all the modes of thought and 
vehicles of thought, traditions, and supersti¬ 
tions of other nations—these things suggest a 
train of dreamy thoughts, and send the mind 
wandering back to times almost as old as that 
setting sun. May it not be that w^e have here 
a not very degenerate specimen of a civiliza¬ 
tion that covered the whole earth before our 
traditions begin—which spread and flourished 
before the Semitic or the Indo-Germanic race 
had being—which has left its traces in India 
and in England, in Mexico and in Italy, in 
California, and in Greece, in Brittany and in 
Normandy, and in the most remote islands of 
the ocean; pilers of mounds and hewers of 
mountains, builders of Babels whose might 
was quenched we know not how, and whose 
sparse descendants w T e can just ti’ace under 
the names of Egyptians, Pelasgians, or Etrus¬ 
cans, mingling with new races, and losing 
their identity.” 

Throughout China proper there exists an 













Chap. XI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


2/51 


invidious nationality, which is intolerant of 
the governing family being of any other race 
than the Chinese: Mantchou, Calmuck, Mon¬ 
gol, it matters not which, the vast mass of 
the Chinese people hate Tartar rule, whether 
power be wielded by an emperor or his 
satrap. It is alleged by those who have 
made considerable acquaintance with China, 
that there cannot be less than seven millions 
of men bound together in secret societies, 
which preserve their fealty with stubborn 
attachment and constancy of purpose. Of 
course such a number would represent very 
many more than those actually confederated. 
Various efforts have been put forth to sup¬ 
press these societies, but they have been 
fruitlessly made. Numbers implicated in the 
seditious confederacies have perished under 
the headsman’s weapon, although life was 
offered to them if they would reveal the 
secrets of these associations. The punish¬ 
ment of death does not seem to have any 
terror for them; and although the govern¬ 
ment executions sweep thousands and tens 
of thousands away, the treasonable clubs in¬ 
crease in numbers and boldness. 

The rebellion, which for a period of at 
least nine years has been raging in China, 
has excited the astonishment of Europe, and 
earnest inquiries as to its origin, character, 
and probable success, have been made ever 
since the tidings of the outbreak first reached 
Europe. As to the origin of it, there can be 
no doubt that the treasonable clubs had much 
to do in setting the example, and affording 
encouragement, and at length aid, but they 
did not originate it. The general discontent 
of the Chinese people was such as to prepai’e 
the public mind for any new combination 
against the government. A new and strange 
organization came into existence, but neither 
its founder nor those who joined it had any 
notion of directing it against the imperial 
throne. That organization was the “ Chinese 
Union,” founded by Dr. Gutzlaff exclusively 
for Christian purposes, as already shown upon 
a former page. Every member of this Union 
undertook to teach some other Chinaman 
what he knew of Christianity, or to place in 
his hands some evangelical treatise, or a por¬ 
tion of the sacred Scriptures. This “Union” 
extended rapidly into the interior, and some 
discontent with the government existed among 
its members, in consequence of the severe 
treatment received from Buddhist and Con- 
tucian fanatics, among the mandarins, officials, 
and scholars. The previously existing “po¬ 
litical unions” (as they would be called in 
English parlance) inflamed this ‘discontent 
purely for political purposes, they, in their 
exaggerated nationality, being eager to grasp 


and use any instrumentality that promised to 
be effective in opposing the Mantchou dy¬ 
nasty. Eventually circumstances occurred, 
and a person arose, which gave to “ the 
Union” a political as well as a religious cha¬ 
racter. A certain man, who from childhood 
had been skilful in all the learning of the 
Chinese, met with a native missionary, the 
assistant of the celebrated Congregational 
clergyman, Dr. Milne; this native teacher 
presented the young scholar with a tractate 
in the Chinese language on Christianity, 
which the latter read earnestly, and was led 
in the result to attend public worship as con¬ 
ducted by the Congregational missionaries. 
He continued to do so for a considerable 
time, and studied the Bible and other reli¬ 
gious books such as he was likely in that 
connection to receive. Retiring to the inte¬ 
rior, he engaged himself actively in connec¬ 
tion with “the Union” of Dr. Gutzlaff, and 
succeeded in obtaining extraordinary accessions 
of members to the ranks of that religious 
confederacy. The mandarins persecuted him 
and the new 7 converts; many were decapi¬ 
tated, and great numbers suffered the spoil¬ 
ing of their goods. These things w r ere not 
known in the seaports, and of course not 
known in Europe, where the idea of native 
Protestants suffering martyrdom in great 
numbers would have excited an extraordinary 
sensation. After endurance for a considerable 
time, some of the evangelists arrested by the 
mandarins were rescued: attempts w r ere made 
by the mandarins to punish those who took 
part in releasing the prisoners from custody, 
but the authorities were resisted by the evan¬ 
gelicals with more audacity than before, the 
political clubs making common cause with 
the members of the religious “ Union,” and 
all flew to arms. They w 7 ere encountered by 
the Tartar troops, and a civil w-ar began, 
having a twofold object—religious liberty, 
and the rescue of the Chinese race from the 
rule of the Mantchou dynasty. The political 
“clubbists” cared nothing for the objects of 
“the Union;” “the Unionists” regarded only 
the liberty of teaching and worship : but as 
these also were patriots, they, when once in 
arms, readily coalesced with the clubbists in 
a common effort to dethrone the Tartar 
tyranny. Various oppressed classes, and 
ultimately all the discontented, good and 
bad, joined these two sections of insurgents, 
and a motley army was formed under the 
chief leaders of “the Union,” as they were 
men of superior intelligence and moral influ¬ 
ence. The tien-teh, or chief, w 7 as Hung-sew- 
tsemen, the scholar who received the book 
from Dr. Milne’s nativ? teacher, Leang-Afah. 
The history of the origin of the insurrection 




252 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chat. XI. 


does not correspond with the accounts gene¬ 
rally given by either the merchants or cor¬ 
respondents of the English and American 
press ; it more nearly accords with that which 
the most experienced missionaries relate, but 
does not entirely agree with any. After most 
mature consideration of a vast variety of 
material, this appears to the author to be the 
only method of accounting for the origin 
and early rapid progress of the insurrection. 
A very respectable authority * has lately 
combated the idea that Christianity had any¬ 
thing to do with the movement, and alleges, 
that the assumption of a religious motive was 
a mere trick of Chinese diplomacy, such as 
that crafty people are always so ready to 
resort to. But the publications of such of 
the rebel chiefs as had any connection with 
the Rev. Dr. Gutzlaff’s Union render it utterly 
impossible to receive any such explanation of 
their conduct. No doubt the Herald's cor¬ 
respondent was informed by Chinese mer¬ 
chants, native and foreign, that such was the 
case, hut it is declared on very respectable 
testimony, by onef who spent much time, 
and incurred much labour, in travel through 
Thibet, Mongolia, and China, that the go¬ 
vernment at Pekin used every means to con¬ 
ceal the real facts of the case, and to mis¬ 
represent, distort, and pervert them. The 
native press was under strict surveillance; 
the provincial papers copied from the Pekin 
Gazette; and that journal, never veracious, 
was characterised by extraordinary mendacity 
in all its accounts of the opinions, purposes, 
and progress of the rebels, and of the origin, 
qualifications, and character of the chiefs. 
Even after the peace of 1842, when the 
British so completely vanquished the Chi¬ 
nese, that the emperor wrote to Key-ing 
and Pei-po, his majesty’s commissioners, to 
make any terms with the barbarians, rather 
than allow* the progress of their arms to con¬ 
tinue, Hue, the traveller, declares that he was 
constantly asked by the people whither the 
barbarians whom the emperor had so severely 
chastised had been driven! “ It is next to 

impossible to say what effect the late rebel¬ 
lions have had upon the government, for the 
articles in the Pekin Gazette only lead the 
people astray.” $ The following character of 
the origin and the originators of the great 
revolt is to some extent adverse to the narra¬ 
tive of both here given, and in some respects 
confirms it:—“ The missionaries saw the 
handwork of God, and their arduous labours 
fairly crowned with approaching success. 
Religion was the motive power, and many 


* The correspondent of the New York Herald. 
t Hue. 

f The New York Herald 


of the clever writers traced the origin of the 
rebellion to Thae-ping-wang, who was a 
student of the missionary Roberts in 1833. 
Some of the merchants agreed, but more of 
them had no faith in the Christianity of the 
troubles. It was no general insurrection, 
and each chief at each place acted on his own 
responsibility, and was actuated only by the 
hope of plunder or rising to fame on the 
waves of revolution. One of the leading 
chieftains was known to have been a horse¬ 
boy (of bad character *) of one of the mer¬ 
chants of Shanghai, and the others’ history 
could not be traced to any good. The move¬ 
ment at Shanghai was entirely distinct from 
that one hundred and fifty miles up the 
Yang-tse-Kiang, at Nankin, while that at 
Amoy was not the same as that at Canton. 
Robbery and piracy v 7 ere fast creating new 
men, and the government could not concen¬ 
trate forces fast enough to put dovm the dis¬ 
turbers of the peace. The attack of the 
foreigners at Shanghai was, it will be remem¬ 
bered, on the imperial, not the rebel camp, 
shoving the belief that the latter was the 
stronger. Then none knew how the battles 
would turn, and the foreigners, influenced 
only by trade and personal safety, -were 
desirous of taking the popular side. Now 
they see their error, although many still hold 
that all was for the best; for had they not 
stopped the advances of the Tartar troops, no 
one would have been safe in the settlement. 
I have said that most of the missionaries be¬ 
lieved that was only the ripening of the mis¬ 
sionary fruit; and even now there are few of 
them that will endorse the position which I 
have taken, that nought but the love of piracy, 
and the excitement of the mob, influence the 
insurrection.” 

The general doctrines of the Unionists are 
the same as those of evangelical Protestants. 
Confirmation of this was afforded a few years 
ago when a number of the party emigrated 
to California. Concerning those men the 
Neveda, a Californian journal, stated that 
they were Protestants in doctrine and habit 
of life, and as such took oath upon the Bible 
in courts of justice. Many absurd opinions 
and blasphemous expressions have been attri¬ 
buted to the rebels of late years. This is 
accounted for variously. The supreme chief, 
soon after the perusal of the book given him 
by Leang-Afah, became ill from anxiety of 
mind, and the deep distress caused by the 
discovery that he had been an idolater and a 
“ devil worshipper.” During this illness he 
had visions, in which, as was natural in his 
excited state, there appeared to be urgent 

* This story has never been authenticated, and is pro¬ 
bably without foundation. 



Chap. XL] 


IN INDIA A IS 

revelations given to him to propagate the 
Word he had received, and, as he fancied, 
new revelations of truth were made to him¬ 
self. It would appear that, while capable of 
reasoning well, and acting in concert with 
others, in reference to religious and political 
matters, he never recovered the shock of that 
illness, nor the intense impression made upon 
his mind by those visions. He was evidently 
subject to occasional aberration, and on those 
occasions put forth pretensions and opinions 
inconsistent with his ordinary behaviour, and 
his seriously avowed belief. Another expla¬ 
nation of these inconsistencies is to be found 
in the fact that the clubbists imitated the 
Unionists in their religious phraseology, be¬ 
cause of the powerful effect which the evan¬ 
gelical doctrine exercised, and wishing politi¬ 
cally to use its influence. These men did not 
understand the subject, and propounded doc¬ 
trines, assumed titles, and performed acts in 
the name of the Bible and of Christ, which 
the members of “the Union” repudiated. 
The amalgamation, however, of the two sec¬ 
tions went forward so rapidly, that much of 
the original purity of opinion and consistency 
of practice has departed. The original idea 
of civil and religious liberty which prevailed 
in the Union has also given place to a fana¬ 
tical assumption that they are raised up to 
purge the earth of idolatry ; under this notion 
they attack Buddhists and Roman Catholics, 
and destroy their places of worship. This 
circumstance has formed another source of 
misrepresentation. The Roman Catholics, 
being eager to deprive their persecutors of 
the character attaching to any moderate pro¬ 
fession of Christian doctrine, have undoubtedly 
given descriptions of the creed and conduct 
of the rebels sometimes exaggerated, and in 
other instances unfounded. 

The opinions deliberately published by 
“the Union” and its chiefs are such as can¬ 
not fail to demand the serious attention of 
Christendom; and whatever nonsense may be 
inculcated by some of the teachers or chiefs, 
there is in most of their proclamations and 
books a powerful leaven of evangelical truth. 
The supreme chief has been accused of blas¬ 
phemy in calling Christ his brother, but it is 
a part of their phraseology to speak of God 
as “ their celestial Father,” and Christ as 
“ their celestial Brother who redeemed them.” 

It is in this sense that the term has been 
used, by such of the rebel chiefs at all events 
as had any connection with “ the Union.” 
Hung-sew-tsemen, who had been an author 
before he professed Christianity, wrote various 
compositions in prose and verse after his 
alleged conversion. The following is a 
specimen given by a very distinguished 


D THE EAST. 253 

American missionary * who knew China 
well:— 

“ Confessing our transgressions against heaven, 

Our dependence upon the full atonement of Jesus, 

We should not believe in devils, but obey the holy Com¬ 
mandments, 

Should worship only the true God, with the full powers 
of the mind, 

Should think on the glories of heaven. 

Also on the terrors of hell, and pity the wicked, 

And early turn to the true, escaping 
From the errors and afflictions of the world.” 

This appears to have been written soon after 
the light of Christianity dawned upon his 
mind, and before the thought of being a 
political and military chief ever occurred to 
him. After he had raised the banner of 
revolt, he posted on the walls of some of the 
cities the following address to the insurgents: 

“ Believe truly in Jesus, aud ultimately have happiness ; 
Turn away from God, and ultimately have misery.” 

This species of military proclamation was 
imitated by men less capable of giving good 
advice to the insurgents, either as to arms, 
policy, or religion. 

A church dignitary f at Hong-Kong has 
given the following prayer, as a specimen of 
the religious and devotional compositions in 
circulation among the rebels: — “ ‘ I, thine 
unworthy son (or daughter), kneeling down 
upon the ground, with a true heart repent of 
my sins, and pray the great God (Shang-ti) 
our heavenly Father, of thine infinite good¬ 
ness and mercy, to forgive my former igno¬ 
rance and frequent transgressions of the 
Divine commands; earnestly beseeching thee, 
of thy great favour, to pardon all my former 
sins, and enable me to repent and lead a new 
life, so that my sold may ascend to heaven. 
May I from henceforth sincerely repent and 
forsake my evil ways, not worshipping corrupt 
spirits (Shin), nor practising perverse things, 
but obeying thy Divine commands. I also 
earnestly pray Thee, the great God our hea¬ 
venly Father, constantly to bestow on me thy 
Holy Spirit, and change my wicked heart. 
Never again allow me to be deceived by 
malignant demons; but, perpetually regarding 
me with favour, for ever deliver me from the 
Evil One; and every day bestowing on me 
food and clothing, exempt me from calamity 
and woe, granting me tranquillity in the pre¬ 
sent world, and the enjoyment of endless 
happiness in heaven; through the merits of 
our Saviour and heavenly Brother, the Lord 
Jesus, who redeemed us from sin. I also 
pray the great God, our Father who is in 
heaven, that his will may be done on earth as 
it is in heaven. That thou wouldst look 

* Rev. Issachar Roberts. 

f The Bishop of Victoria. 




254 


HISTORY OP THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


Chap. XI, 


down and grant this request, is my heart’s 
sincere desire.’ In this extract from The 
Book of Religious Precepts of the Thae- 
ping-wang Dynasty , we have a clear recog¬ 
nition of the guilt of sin, the duty of repent¬ 
ance, the atonement of Jesus Christ, the need 
of a new heart, and the work of the Holy 
Spirit in renewing and purifying the soul for 
heaven.” 

A distinguished missionary* of the Con- 
gregationalists says : — “ The Emperors of 
China have been remarkable for their absurd 
claim of extravagant titles and relationships 
to heaven. The rival emperor declares that 
Wang (king), and not Shing (h-oly) nor Ti 
(emperor or potentate) belongs to him, for 
the latter term belongs only to the great 
Supreme Being (Shang-ti).” 

In confirmation of this favourable opinion 
of the pretensions of the rebel chiefs, the same 
missionary quotes a proclamation from the 
chief to his army:—“The great God, He is 
God (Ti). The monarchs of this world may 
be called kings, and that is all. The great 
God (Shang-ti), our heavenly Father and 
Supreme Lord, is omniscient, omnipotent, 
and omnipresent, the Supreme over all. 
There is not an individual who is not pro¬ 
duced and cherished by Him. He is Shang 
(supreme) ; He is Ti (potentate). Besides 
the great God (Shang-ti), our heavenly 
Father and Supreme Lord, there is no one 
who can be called Shang, and no one who 
can be called Ti. Therefore from henceforth 
all you soldiers and officers may designate us 
your lord, and that is all; you must not call 
me supreme, lest you should encroach upon 
the designation of pur heavenly Father. Our 
heavenly Father is our Holy Father, and our 
celestial elder Brother is our Holy Lord the 
Saviour of the world. Hence our heavenly 
Father and our celestial elder Brother alone 
are holy; and from henceforth all you soldiers 
and officers may designate us your lord, and 
that is all; but you must not call me holy, 
lest you encroach upon the designation of our 
heavenly Father and celestial elder Brother.” 

The prospects of the insurrection have 
been much discussed in China and in Europe. 
The most recent opinions given are unfavour¬ 
able to its success. These views receive 
some confirmation from the fact that the 
rebels have lately experienced some signal 
defeats, have been driven from their impor¬ 
tant positions on the Grand Canal, and have 
lost some of the chief cities which they had 
conquered. This must not, however, be 
taken as proof of a failing cause, for some of 
their chief conquests were made with means 
so inadequate, that the wonder is they were 
* The late Dr. Medhurst. 


able so long to occupy them. The city of 
Amoy, for instance, containing so large a 
population, was stormed by about six thou¬ 
sand insurgents, sans culots, as Hr. Legge 
termed them, and, according to the same 
testimony, armed chiefly with knives: yet 
the surprised mandarins fled at the approach 
of danger, and the troops were so fascinated 
with the audacity of the stormers, that they 
made common cause with them. Subsequently 
the Tartars reconquered the city. The great 
bulk of the Chinese look listlessly on, taking 
no part, and caring little who is the con¬ 
queror, so as their ordinary business is not 
interfered with: the little interest they do 
take is, however, in sympathy with the 
insurgents. 

The rebellion has lasted too long to expire 
under a few reverses caused by the insurgents 
having pushed on too far from their basis of 
operations. The doctrine which the revolters 
are spreading is acting as a solvent upon the 
established order of things, too active and 
potent not finally to subdue both throne and 
temple. Even if the present insurrection 
were suppressed, the seed of it could not be 
extirpated: it has been sown broad-cast upon 
the Chinese mind. Since 1849,* when the 
first outbreak showed itself—a period of 
nearly ten years—the moral influence of the 
rebellion among the people, although not 
among Europeans, has been growing, so that 
wherever a rebel army arrives, there is no 
disposition in even the most populous cities 
to resist them; and generally the Tartar troops 
fail to encounter with success the fierce energy 
of those earnest men. The last authority . 
upon the prospects of the rebellion, whose 
opinion has reached Europe, is the corre¬ 
spondent of the Times. He thus expresses 
himself, writing at the latter end of August, 
1857:— 

“ From three o’clock till eight I slept, and 
awoke to find myself moored against the vil¬ 
lage of Min-Hang. While at this village I 
fell in with a Chinese physician, who had 
escaped from Nankin when it fell into the 
hands of the rebels. He was the first speci¬ 
men of a Chinese gentleman I had seen. The 
villages in this neighbourhood contain many 
fugitives from the rebel districts. The govern¬ 
ment lodges them in the temples, and allows 
them thirty cash (about threepence) a day, 
wherewith, at the present prices, they cannot 
buy even a sufficiency of rice. Of course 
disease is common among them, and this 
benevolent old gentleman devotes himself to 
their care. He came on board my boat, and 
we had a long chat. He insists that the key 
of the Yang-tse-Kiang, Chin-Kiang, has 
* It was not until 1853 that it gained bead. 




Chap. XI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


2 55 


been recovered by the Imperialists; for bis 
friends at Soo-choo have written to him to 
say so. I doubt this, however; for if this 
decisive event had happened, the government 
would certainly have announced it at Shan¬ 
ghai. His view is that the rebellion is dying 
out. He says the locusts have destroyed it, 
having especially come upon those provinces 
where the rebels hold their sway. He does 
not rest his expectation upon the imperial 
armies, for he says that the rebels are robbers 
and murderers, accustomed to every artifice, 
and.adepts in all villany. All the loyal peo¬ 
ple can do is to hem the conflagration round, 
and wait till it burns out. 

“ These are the opinions of a well-informed 
Chinese gentleman, who has seen much more 
of these rebels than the Europeans who have 
written upon the subject. About forty-eight 
hours is the longest period that any European 
has been among them, and they have never 
invited any closer intercourse. Mr. Edkins 
interpreted for me these sayings of my Chi¬ 
nese acquaintance with no great satisfaction. 
The missionaries still hang their hope upon 
this rebel cause: the facts are unpromising, 
but still they hope. Devastation and blood¬ 
shed track the course of these insurgents 
wherever they go, but these are only neces¬ 
sary incidents of civil war. The ruin of those 
public works, which are to China what their 
dams are to the Dutch, mark where these 
rebels are, and where they have been. Still 
more widely-extended ruin follows upon the 
exhaustion of the imperial treasury. The 
two great rivers, no longer restrained by the 
great artificial embankments, now suffered to 
decay, are altering their courses, and devas¬ 
tating tracts as large as European kingdoms. 
Perhaps a man whose fervid religious zeal 
is akin to that which animated Joshua or 
Gideon, may see in all this but the will of 
God working to a great end. but the religious 
facts are not encouraging. The nominal 
head of the movement, claimed as amissionary 
convert, has sought no communication with 
any Christian teacher. He boasts himself the 
sovereign of the whole earth, calls himself 
the younger brother of Jesus Christ, and 
claims to have constant personal intercourse 
with the Almighty. His second in command, 
the king of the east, blasphemously styled 
himself the Holy Ghost; but he has been 
slain in internecine conflict, and the great 
leader, or his counsellors, proved their vigour 
and their Christian humanity by butcher¬ 
ing two thousand of his adherents in cold 
blood. 

“ This does not look like a hopeful result of 
a missionary conversion, nor does it give 
much promise of temporal success to the 


insurrectionary movement. But then these 
reformers put to death the ‘idolaters,’ whether 
they call themselves the priests of Buddha or 
the missionaries of the Pope; they forbid 
opium-smoking under pain of death, and 
tobacco-smoking under pain of blows; they 
appear to have read, although they have mis¬ 
interpreted, the sacred books which the mis¬ 
sionaries distribute. Amid the outpourings 
of blood, in famine and pestilence, in the 
wreck of all the physical good which antiquity 
has wrought, our missionaries think they see 
a hope for the religion of the Bible.” 

It is but just to the writer of the foregoing 
passage to state, that he admits his fellow- 
traveller, the Rev. Mr. Edkins, Congregational 
missionary, differed from him totally in his 
views as to the principles and prospects of 
the insurgents. That the reader may put 
upon this admission its full value, the follow¬ 
ing is the correspondent’s estimate of the 
judgment of that clergyman. Having de¬ 
scribed some of the missionaries as having 
urged the rebels “to go forth and kill,” an 
extremely improbable hearsay story, the cor¬ 
respondent observes :—“ Mr. Edkins is a man 
of very different spirit to such as these. 
Upon the testimony of the linguists of Paris, 
and of the Chinese here, I know him to be 
one of the greatest of Chinese scholars, and 
from my own intercourse with him I can say 
that he is fairly read in the sciences, and well 
acquainted with western literature. He has 
undertaken the task of showing the Chinese 
that we have a literature, and thus disabusing 
them of that contempt which extends itself 
to our faith. His American coadjutor, Dr. 
Macgowan, undertakes to instruct their gra¬ 
duates in the mysteries of the electric tele¬ 
graph, and their pilots in the law of storms. 
Missionary labours thus directed must result 
in good. Your medical missionaries, such as 
Dr. Lockhart and Dr. Parker, command the 
gratitude and goodwill of the people. Men of 
learning, like Mr. Edkins and Dr. Macgowan 
gradually compel the respect of the literati. 
These men are ploughing a soil in expecta¬ 
tion of a seed- time which is not yet. To the 
missionary societies of England and America 
I would say Tice tibi erunt artes ,—ignorant 
declaimers in bad Chinese have no success in 
China. Their preaching is foolishness in 
more than the apostolic sense; but this prac¬ 
tical and conceited people only jeer and blas¬ 
pheme. Yet I have found even the higher 
class of missionaries hoping against hope that 
the rebels may succeed, and that they may 
turn out to be Christians.” 

A correspondent of the New York Herald, 
whose letters were dated a little earlier than 
those just quoted, takes the same views, and 





256 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chip. XI. 


they are expressed in a manner which entitles 
them to consideration:— 

“ I have given my reasons for believing 
that the late insurrection was entirely foreign 
from the Christian’s labours; but, as I have 
said, few of the members of the mission will 
agree with me. However, my opinion goes 
for what it is worth. Read MacDowal’s and 
Meadows’ correspondence in the Times last 
year, if you wish to see different views. The 
one argues directly against the other; but 
neither conclusively. Depend upon it, the 
Tsing dynasty came much nearer being over¬ 
thrown with the English war than by the 
late movement; for the one had power, the 
other only told of weakness. It is utterly 
impossible to say what a day may bring forth. 
Here, as in Europe, a change may come in 
the night-time. China may remain stationary 
for a year or two, or longer, and then, mira- 
bile dictu, all may be in commotion again. 
As Europe was in the middle ages, so is China 
now—just upon the eve of some wonderful 
moral and political change. Feudal Europe 
held back for a long time from civilization, 
from the arts, literature, and commerce. So 
it is now with China. Foreign influence must 
work out the country’s destiny. What is 
wanted is the, united action of several nations 
—an allied fleet to wake them from their 
lethargic slumbers. 

“ I have shown, in running my eye through 
the page of history, that the revolution of 
1853 is nothing at all unusual: periodical 
storms of insurrections have and will continue 
to spread the Jacobin system throughout the 
empire; the same restless democratic spirit 
that is working at the vitals of European 
monarchism, in a different form is eating at 
the roots of the Tartar’s throne. I can ima¬ 
gine nothing more terrible than the breaking 
up into petty governments of such a mighty 
people. Better be as they are, than in the 
hands of native princes, each striving for the 
other’s life.” 

As a question of authority between “the 
correspondents ” and the missionaries, it will 
not be wonderful if men who have known 
China for many years, and have conversed 
with the rebels, should know better the con¬ 
dition of China, and the state of Chinese 
parties; nor is it unlikely or unreasonable, that 
men accustomed to study human nature from 
the religious point of view, should be the 
better judges of a great religious or quasi- 
religious movement. Probably no man in 


China is more competent than the Rev. Dr. 
Legge, of the Congregational mission, to 
judge this matter. His views are, that al¬ 
though the fortunes of the rebels may be 
chequered, they are sure to succeed in the 
end; that in such case they will open China 
to European commerce, but will nevertheless 
suppress the opium trade; that although they 
imperfectly understand Christianity, and civil 
and religious liberty, they will make China as 
free to the missionary as to the merchant; 
and however likely at first to persecute idol¬ 
atry in every form, they will yield to more 
tolerant views under the influence of Chris¬ 
tian ministers, and the social and political 
ideas entertained by the English, Americans, 
and others conducting commerce at their 
ports. 

The merchant class in China is less favour¬ 
able than the missionary class to the rebel 
cause, in consequence of the notorious deter¬ 
mination of the insurgents to suppress a 
traffic by which the trader profits. This will, 
perhaps, explain much of the too sanguine 
favour shown by the one, and the distrust or 
hostility of the other, to the insurrectionary 
party- There can be no doubt that the issue 
of the war with England in 1842 deprived 
the Tartar troops of all prestige in the eyes of 
the people, and inspired the hope of a suc¬ 
cessful struggle; and that the present war 
with England and France will be productive 
of the same result in a still greater degree, 
affording new life to the rebel cause. Should 
success crown their efforts, then, in the words 
of Dr. Legge, it may be said, “ there will be 
effected one of the greatest revolutions the 
world ever saw.” Idolatry will cease to be 
the established creed of one-third of the 
earth’s population; Christianity, in a form 
more or less enlightened, will be ostensibly 
recognised by that proportion of mankind; 
and freedom of intercourse will be secured 
between China and Europe, productive of 
marvellous commercial results. Should such 
a change take place in China, Japan, Java, 
and other benighted regions of the East will 
feel the vibrations of a moral and political 
earthquake extensive and mighty, and be 
startled from the social, moral, and intellectual 
torpor in which they have been so long 
benumbed. The regeneration of China is the 
regeneration of the oriental world; for the 
industry and enterprise of the race fit them to 
become the apostles of a new eastern civi¬ 
lization. 






Chap. XII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST 


257 


CHAPTER XII. 

INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES WHICH HAVE BEEN THEATRES OP WAR DURING THE PROGRESS 
OF OUR EASTERN DOMINION {Continued). 


BIRMAH. 

The empire of Ava comprises many territories 
which, did not originally belong to it, and 
which have all been included under the gene¬ 
ral name of Birmah. Fierce wars have been 
conducted by the Birmese with Cochin China, 
Siam, Laos, Pegu, and with every people 
around them, by which their dominion gra¬ 
dually extended over the whole of the Indo- 
Chinese peninsula. In this career of conquest 
many checks were experienced, especially 
from the Peguans, who at one time plundered 
the capital of Ava. The wars with England 
were disastrous to the Birmese, issuing in the 
loss of some of their finest territories, com¬ 
prising, as shown on another page, the coun¬ 
tries along the whole eastern shore of the 
Bay of Bengal. Having already described 
the provinces thus conquered from the Bir¬ 
mese, it will be unnecessary to dwell long 
upon the characteristics of an empire, our 
chief interest in which is connected with its 
contiguity to those conquests. 

The Birman empire, in its present extent— 
shorn of the territories wrested from it so 
lately by the English—occupies that portion 
of the Indo-Chinese peninsula which separates 
the British dominions from those of China 
proper and Siam. It is bounded on the north 
by Assam and Thibet; on the east by China 
and Siam; on the west by certain states of 
India tributary to Great Britain, and by the 
British province of Arracan; on the south by 
China, Siam, and Pegu. It is impossible to 
say with precision what are its precise boun¬ 
daries along its eastern and south-eastern 
frontiers, as they are perpetually changing, 
especially from disputes with Laos, Lachtho, 
Cambosia, and Siam. These are peaceful 
nations, but the love of extending territory, 
which seems ingrained in the hearts of all 
orientals, brings them into incessant differ¬ 
ences with the Birmese, who are, however, 
more generally the aggressors. The area is 
unknown: no surveys exist, and any state¬ 
ment would rest on mere conjecture. Since 
the loss of Tenesserim, Pegu, and the other 
ceded territories north of the latter, it is 
alleged that from two hundred thousand 
square miles, which the empire once con¬ 
tained, its area has been reduced to half that 
extent. 

The number of the population cannot be 
ascertained: the highest estimate is about 
sixteen millions. The ancient part of the 

VOL. I. 


I empire — that which is inhabited by the 
governing race — is Ava, a very extensive 
region. It gives its name to the whole of the 
Birmese dominions, which are frequently 
called the empire of Ava; and it is supposed 
by some writers to take its name from the 
city so designated, which is upon the right 
bank of the Irriwaddy, and central to the 
empire. 

The climate is one of the finest in India, 
especially in the northern portions of Ava 
bordering Thibet. The intense heat expe¬ 
rienced in the British provinces of Tenes¬ 
serim, Pegu, and Arracan, is not common in 
any part of Ava, except for a short time 
during midsummer: the climate is, however, 
very warm in every part of the empire. The 
productions of the soil are tropical. The 
regularity of the seasons is favourable to the 
cultivator, as he can nearly always rely upon 
a return of the expected produce, and has no 
difficulty in determining upon what is suitable 
to plant or sow. There is very little lowland 
in Ava, and hence, notwithstanding the low 
latitude, vegetables and fruits common to 
Southern Europe in some places grow well. 
Most of the productions of India and China 
thrive within the limits of the old Birman 
empire. Good wheat, and other cereals, are 
raised. Tobacco, cotton of two sorts (one 
very white, the other brown, suitable for 
nankeens), indigo, sugar-cane, and rice, yield 
abundant crops to the husbandman. Nearly 
all the fruits of the tropics are plentiful in 
Ava. Trees of very many kinds flourish: 
teak grows thickly by the river courses, 
although the best kinds are found in the 
mountains, which are also crowned with 
varieties of useful firs. The forest districts 
are unhealthy, as they are in India. Ague 
and jungle fever are very common, and Euro¬ 
peans cannot encounter the pestiferous influ¬ 
ence of these neighbourhoods. The woodmen 
are a peculiar class, who live by the timber 
trade: they endure the deleterious influences 
of the climate as none others can, but they 
seldom live to an advanced age. 

The tea-plant is indigenous to Birmah: 
some good qualities of the Assam species are 
found on the frontier of that country. Some 
very fine qualities have been also discovered 
on the Chinese frontier, but the quantity 
picked in either case is very small. In the 
interior there are wild plants, which are very 
prolific, bearing a leaf resembling Bohea; and 

T. L 










258 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XII. 


a peculiar species, the leaf of which makes a 
most agreeable piclde, in the opinion of some 
Europeans surpassing all others. 

The mineral productions of Birmah are 
abundant as they are varied. The gold and 
silver mines of Badouem, on the Chinese fron¬ 
tiers, have been long known. The mines of 
Woobolootan are amongst the most remark¬ 
able in the world; they are situated on the 
hilly range near the River Keenduem, and 
yield gold, silver, sapphires, and rubies. Near 
the city of Ava, at Keoummevum, there are 
mines still richer, and the variety of the trea¬ 
sures found there probably exceeds that of 
any other mines in the world. Between the 
Rivers Irriwaddv and Keenduem there is a 
small river called the Shoe Lien Koup (the 
stream of the golden sand), in which gold 
dust in large quantities is obtained. In many 
of the minor streams, along the lower moun¬ 
tain slopes, gold is found in the sands. Ava 
is famous for its beautiful chrysolites. Ame¬ 
thysts and garnets are found in very great 
numbers: jasper is a product much prized by 
the Birmese. Near some of the rivers amber, 
the purest and most pellucid in the world, is 
dug up. The marble of Birmah is likewise 
unrivalled; it admits of a polish which renders 
it almost transparent. This commodity is 
invested with religious sacredness, because 
the images of Buddha are formed from it: its 
exportation is prohibited, except through the 
medium of government. There are but few 
minerals which are not to he found in Birmah: 
iron, tin, lead, antimony, arsenic, and sulphur, 
are obtained in large quantities, with but 
little expenditure of labour or capital. 

One of the curiosities of Birmese production 
is the petroleum oil, which is drawn from 
wells, that have attained great celebrity in 
the East: throughout the imperial provinces 
this oil is much in request, and as the govern¬ 
ment holds a monopoly of its sale, a large 
revenue is thence derived. 

The animals of Ava are of the same species 
as those of Arracan, Pegu, and Tenesserim 
generally, which have been already described 
w T hen an account of those vanquished pro¬ 
vinces of the Birman empire was given. In 
Ava the elephant is much prized. 

The vegetable, mineral, and animal products 
of this fine country are articles of commerce 
with neighbouring nations, and hut for the 
illiberal commercial notions of both the people 
and the government, the Birmese empire 
would, ages since, have been a vast emporium, 
so numerous and valuable are its resources. 

The chief commerce is conducted with 
China, in which country there is a market for 
most Birmese commodities; and the manufac¬ 
tures of China are highly valued in Ava. 


China takes most of the cotton -which is 
exported, and especially of the brown sort, 
which is manufactured into cloth in the city 
of Nankin. The Chinese eagerly purchase 
from the Birmans amber, ivory, precious 
stones, and betel-nut. Formerly edible birds’ 
nests were a Birman export, but these were 
sent to China by provinces which are now 
British. The Birmese receive for their com¬ 
modities from China silks raw and wrought, 
velvets, gold-leaf, paper, porcelain, and metal 
vessels. The Avanese are very desirous to 
procure Chinese preserves, which are in high 
reputation in all that part of the Indo-Chinese 
peninsula. Cocoa-nut is a much valued im¬ 
portation from Ceylon and Continental India. 
From the latter muslins are received, and 
broad-cloths from England. The beautiful 
wing and tail feathers of the Argus pheasant 
{Argus giganteus), found only in the Indo- 
Chinese peninsula and the Island of Sumatra, 
were formerly a profitable commodity of Bir¬ 
mese commerce. They are now generally 
exported from Malacca. Marabout feathers 
are at present obtained chiefly from Cochin 
China: previously they were also a Birmese 
export. 

Feathers were, at a former period, woven 
for clothing in Ava and China. The forests of 
the former, and the sea-coasts, afforded haunts 
for multitudes of birds; and the feathers were 
plaited or woven into garments with great 
ingenuity. The plaited feather-work of Ava 
was very beautiful, but the Chinese excelled 
in incorporating feathers with various tissues, 
and producing what they called feather-cloth. 
This art is almost lost in China: it is still 
practised. after a rude fashion in Ava. The 
Birmese also used feathers in decorating jewel¬ 
lery, but the natives of China excelled them 
greatly in this art, which they still success¬ 
fully practise, the higher classes of the Bir¬ 
mese being good customers: feathers, precious 
stones, and the precious metals being ex¬ 
changed for these decorated products of Chi¬ 
nese ingenuity. These manufactures are of a 
character so peculiar and remarkable, that 
a description of the processes cannot fail to 
interest the reader. A distinguished natu¬ 
ralist, referring to the uses to which the 
ancient Birmese and Chinese put the feathers, 
so abundant on the Indo-Chinese peninsula, 
and particularly naming the head-ornaments 
and feather-cloths, observes:— 

“ Among them was the celestial goose 
velvet, the foundation of the fabric being of 
silk, into which the feathers were ingeniously 
and skilfully interwoven on a common loom, 
those of a crimson hue being the most expen¬ 
sive. Of these wild goose feathers two kinds 
of cloth were made—one for winter, the other 



Chap. XII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST 


259 


for summer wear. Ram could not moisten 
them: they were called ‘rain satin’ and ‘rain 
gauze’ respectively. Canton men imitated 
the manufacture, employing feathers of the 
common goose, blending them with cloth. 
This fabric, though inferior in quality, was 
much cheaper. Goods of the same descrip¬ 
tion were also brought from Hohleh (believed 
to be Bokhara), made of birds’ feathers: they 
were twilled, the crimson-coloured being most 
valued. The article was too heavy for gar¬ 
ments. The Cantonese also learned to imitate 
this, making it like plain silk, and inferior to 
that from abroad. Although the Chinese 
would seem to have lost the art of weaving 
feathers, plumagery is still extensively prac¬ 
tised in the decoration of metallic ornaments 
worn by all classes of females, chiefly on the 
head. The gaudy lustre of the metal is soft¬ 
ened by laying over portions of it a covering 
of blue feathers representing flowers, insects, 
birds, and the like, which imparts indescrib¬ 
able beauty to the silversmith’s elaborate 
filagrees. The art appears to most advantage 
as practised by artificers, whose occupation is 
the manufacture of garlands, chaplets, frontals, 
tiaras, and crowns of very thin copper, on 
which purple, dark and light blue feathers of 
gorgeous brilliancy are laid with exquisite 
taste and skill, A more tasteful, elegant, or 
gorgeous blending of art and- nature than is 
exhibited, in. some of these head-dresses', per¬ 
haps no ingenuity has hitherto devised. 

“ As this elegant art has not hitherto 
attracted the attention of foreigners, the mode 
of procedure may be briefly described:—On 
the table at which the workman sits, he has 
a fasciculus of feathers, a small furnace with 
a few embers, for keeping warm a cup of glue, 
a small cutting instrument like a screw-driver, 
a pencil or brush, and the articles—either 
silver-gilt, copper-tinsel, or pasteboard:— 
which are to be feathered. The thumb and 
index-finger being smeared with glue* the 
feathers are gently drawn between them, 
which stiffens the barbs, causing them, to 
adhere firmly together; and when dry the 
perpendicular blade is drawn close to the 
shaft, dividing, it from the barbed portion. 
Holding this cutting instrument as in writing, 
a la Chinoise, the artist, by pressing on the 
strips of barb with the knife, cuts them into 
the desired size and shape, which is a work 
of some delicacy'—-the pieces being very small, 
in the form of petals, scales, diamonds, squares, 
and the like, and requiring to be of the same 
size as the particular spot on which they are 
to be laid. Besides fingering this tool in the 
manner described, he holds the pencil nearly 
as we do a pen, dips it into the glue, brushes 
the spot to be coated; then expertly reversing 


it, touches with its opposite point a tiny bit 
of feather, which is thus lifted up and laid on 
the part for which it was fitted. Care is 
requisite, also, in giving a proper direction to 
this- twilled work, for such, of course, is the 
appearance presented by the barbs. The 
feathers most in demand for this purpose are 
from a beautiful species of alcedo, brought 
from the tropical regions of Asia: they are 
employed for silver articles. King-fishers of 
coarser plumage and less brilliant hues, found 
throughout the country, are used for orna¬ 
ments made of copper or pasteboard. Blue 
always' greatly predominates over lighter or 
darker shades, relieved by purple, white, or 
yellow.” * 

Several substances for tanning are exported 
from the limits of the old Birmese empire, 
some of which are the products of Birmah 
proper—terra japonica, an inspissated extract 
from the leaves and branches of the TJncaria 
gamber, and cutch, an astringent extract, ob¬ 
tained by boiling the wood of the Acacia 
catechu, are specimens of these. 

The bone fans, in the manufacture of which 
the Chinese so excel, are made from material 
in a large degree supplied by the Birmese 
empire. The ivory fans of China and other 
ivory manufactures of the celestial empire 
are made in considerable part from material 
exported by either the Avanese or inha¬ 
bitants. of British Birmah. Although African 
ivory is preferred in this country, the Chinese 
find it more convenient to obtain that of Bir¬ 
mah in exchange for their silks. The ivory 
of the tame elephant of Birmah is supposed to 
be superior to that of the animal in a tame 
condition elsewhere. That from the wild 
animal of Birmah is valued by the Chinese as 
highly as the best African. The uses to which 
ivory may be put are almost innumerable,f 
and the natives of the empires of Birmah and 
China adopt a very great number of them. 
Fans, flowers, fancy boxes, idols, idol furni¬ 
ture, altars, inlaid work for columns and doors 
of temples, throne decorations, and ornaments 
for the pavilion of the white elephant, are 
some of the purposes for which it is employed. 
The government has a monopoly of such as 
is exported to China. Ivory dust is used for 
food by some of the higher classes, which 
others consider to be irreligious. The blanc¬ 
mange which is made from it is extremely 
agreeable* The Bihnese never succeeded 
in attaining to the perfection of either 
the Indians or Chinese in the working of 

* Dr. Macgowan on Chinese and Aztec Plumagery, in 
American Journal of Science and Art. 

f See a Paper read by Professor Owen before, the 
Society of Arts, reported in the Society’s Journal of the 
19th of December, 1856. 



260 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chai\ xir. 


ivory; for although some good specimens of 
Birmese carving exist, especially of ancient 
date, yet the following encomium upon 
their more artistic neighbours is correct 
“ The Chinese have long been celebrated for 
their excellence in the fabrication of orna¬ 
mental articles in ivory, and, strange to say, 
up to our own time, their productions are still 
unrivalled. European artists have never suc¬ 
ceeded in cutting ivory after the manner of 
these people, nor, to all appearance, is it 
likely they ever will. Nothing can be more 
exquisitely beautiful than the delicate lace- 
work of a Chinese fan, or the elaborate carv¬ 
ing of their miniature junks, chess-pieces, 
and concentric halls : their models of temples, 
pagodas, and other pieces of architecture, are 
likewise skilfully constructed; and yet three 
thousand years ago such monuments of art 
were executed with the very same grace and 
fidelity! ” * 

Horn, particularly the horn of the buffalo, 
is also sent to China, where it is manufactured 
into drinking-cups, hilts of swords, snuff¬ 
boxes, &c. In Birmah drinking vessels are 
made out of this material by the hand, and in 
a most wasteful manner; in China the process 
is as scientific as in England, and therefore 
less expensive than the Birmese work, so 
that these articles are sent into Ava, made 
from the horn imported thence to China. 
The process in the latter country may be 
thus described :—“ The horn, being sawn to 
the required length, is scalded and washed 
over the fire, but, instead of being slit and 
opened, is placed, while hot, in a conical 
mould of wood; a corresponding plug of wood 
is then driven hard in to bring the horn to 
shape. Here it remains till cold, and is then 
taken out, and fixed by the large end on the 
mandril of a lathe, when it is turned and 
polished both inside and outside, and a groove 
or chime, as the coopers call it, is cut by a 
gauge tool within the small end for receiving 
the bottom. The horn is then taken off the 
lathe, and laid before the fire, when it expands, 
and becomes somewhat flexible ; a round flat 
piece of horn, of the proper size (cut out of a 
plate by means of a kind of crown saw), is 
dropped in, and forced down till it reaches 
the chime, and becomes perfectly fixed in this 
situation, and w T ater-tight by the subsequent 
contraction of the horn as it cools.” The 
buffalo and deer horns‘imported from Siam 
to Great Britain frequently pass into that 
country from the Birman empire, and nearly 
thirty thousand pairs of horns reach England 
from the Siamese coasts. 

Hogs’ skins are used in the manufacture of 
shoes. The animal thrives in Birmah, as it 
* Report of the Society of Arts. 


does in almost all countries and climates. 
The most valuable wax imported to England 
is the insect wax of Birmah and China, the 
secretion of the Coccus ceriferus. Musk, in 
grain and in the pod, is brought to England 
from Birmah and Siam. 

The Birmans use no coin in their commer¬ 
cial dealings with foreigners or with one an¬ 
other ; silver in bullion, and lead, are used 
as the currency. 

The people are muscular and active, but 
not tall. The complexion is purer than that 
of the Chinese, and much fairer than that of 
the natives of Bengal, the form both of fea¬ 
ture and person much more resembling that of 
the Chinese. The women are much fairer than 
the men, and in the northern parts of the 
country they are sometimes fairer than the 
inhabitants of Southern Europe. 

The government is despotic, the emperor, 
like his brother of China, assuming the most 
absurd and pompous titles. In a state docu¬ 
ment of 1810 the King of England w r as de¬ 
scribed as the emperor’s vassal. There are 
no hereditary offices or titles, all honours re¬ 
verting to the crown, upon the decease of the 
possessor. The officials and wealthy classes 
are polite and affable, but subtle and rapa¬ 
cious. This arises in part from the extreme 
oppressions to which they are subjected on 
the part of the crown, in order to enhance 
the already enormous riches of the royal 
house, which possesses stores of precious 
metals and precious stones, the most costly 
Chinese silks, ivory carvings, plate, and other 
articles of expensive Chinese manufacture, 
reputed to be of enormous worth. 

The Birmese have always been warlike, 
and especially addicted to naval warfare. 
Their w*ar-boats were a terror in the Bay 
of Bengal and in the Eastern seas at a period 
not very remote. The whole people are 
liable to be called out to military service; 
but a very small standing army is also re¬ 
tained, which, for the most part, consists of 
native Christians. The discipline and arms 
are alike wretched. In combat with men 
whose weapons are not superior, the Birmese 
show great spirit and courage. The henza, 
or Brahminy goose, is the royal ensign, like 
the eagle of certain European armies, ancient 
and modern. 

The Pali language is the sacred text of 
Ava, Siam, and Pegu. The Birman language 
is written in the Sanscrit character, but bears 
no resemblance in construction to that lan¬ 
guage.* The character in common use 
throughout Ava is a round Nogari, derived 
from the square Pali. It is formed of circles 
and segments of circles, variously disposed, 
* Missionary reports. 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


2G1 


Chap. XII.] 

and is written from left to right.* The 
higher classes affect an indistinct pronun¬ 
ciation. 

The Birmans are fond of literature. A 
curious exemplification of this exists in the 
fact that Sir William Jones’s translation of 
the institutes of Hindoo law were translated 
by an Armenian, in 1795, under the orders 
of the Birman emperor. Letters are so gene¬ 
rally diffused, that very considerable numbers 
can read and write. Those who can afford 
to keep libraries do so, and, as in China, the 
public libraries are on a large scale. They 
are, however, few in Birmah. According to 
one authority, f the library of his Birman 
majesty, early in this century, was the largest 
royal library in Asia. The people are fond 
of poetry and music, and love to repeat in 
verse, and sing, the exploits of their ancient 
kings. 

The religion of Birmah, as the reader has 
seen from references in previous pages, is 
Buddhist. There are no castes, and no here¬ 
ditary trades or professions. The character¬ 
istics of this religion have been sufficiently 
depicted in former chapters. There is, how¬ 
ever, one most extraordinary superstition for 
which the empire is noted—the reverence 
paid to the white elephant. The Birmese, 
who believe in metempsychosis, suppose that 
a white elephant contains a human soul in 
the last of many millions of transmigrations, 
at the conclusion of which he is absorbed 
into the Deity. A white elephant is, in con¬ 
sequence of this superstition, always selected 
for the highest post of dignity in the kingdom 
next to that of the emperor. The elephant 
takes precedent of the queen. The following 
description is the substance of one given in 
more detail by Captain Canning after a visit 
to the capital of Ava in 1812:—The resi¬ 
dence of the white elephant is contiguous to 
the royal palace, with which it is connected 
by a long open gallery supported by nume¬ 
rous wooden pillars, at the farther end of 
which a curtain of black velvet, embossed 
with gold, conceals the august animal from 
the eyes of the vulgar, and before this curtain 
the offerings intended for him are displayed. 
His dwelling is a lofty hall covered with 
splendid gilding both inside and out, and 
supported by a number of elegant columns; 
his trappings are very magnificent, being 
gold studded with large diamonds, pearls, 
sapphires, rubies, and other precious stones; 
the vessels out of which he feeds are likewise 
of gold inlaid with precious stones, and his 
attendants and guard amount to a thousand 
persons. The animal thus fed, dressed, and 
attended, and apparently unconscious of his 
* Captain Canning. t Colonel Symes. 


own importance, receives at a great distance 
the homage of his votaries, who humbly bow 
their heads before him nearly to the ground. 
He possesses a cabinet, composed of a wrin- 
ghee, or prime-minister, a secretary of state, 
an under-secretary, a transmitter of intelli¬ 
gence, and various inferior officers, who are, 
nevertheless, high functionaries. There are 
several large estates in different parts of the 
country which belong to him, and by the 
income of which the vast expenditure con¬ 
nected with his dignity is defrayed. When 
such is the religion of Birmah, the moral and 
social life of its people cannot be expected to 
approach in any degree what is pure or 
happy. 

As in China, the extraordinary minute 
provision made for the punishment of offences, 
and the multitude of crimes thus provided for, 
show the laxity of the people and the rigidity 
of the government. 

The treatment of woman is one of the 
worst features of Birmese social life. They 
are subjected to every species of hardship, 
but are not shut up, as in India; on the 
contrary, they are as unrestrained as Euro¬ 
pean women. There is a peculiar institution 
affecting woman, which may be called wife- 
lending, which would demoralise any country 
where such a law and such a practice was 
permitted to exist. Females, married or 
single, are leased for a certain time to serve 
as a wife, especially to strangers. If the 
stranger is obliged to depart the country, 
the bond ceases to be effective—both parties 
are free. Yet the women are seldom unfaith¬ 
ful. It is rare for a Birmese woman to betray 
her husband, even under the vilest provoca¬ 
tion. No women in the East, or perhaps in 
the world, are so little given to intrigue in 
any form. Even when placed under bond to 
a stranger, they are true to that bond, and 
are kind to their offspring. All children of 
Europeans born in Ava are held by the laws 
to be the subjects of the emperor, and cannot 
be removed without his special permission, 
which it is presumed he would hardly dare to 
refuse when British subjects made the demand, 
yet under cover of this law shameful deser¬ 
tion has been excused. In British Birmah 
similar customs exist in respect to woman, 
but of course without the sanction of law. 
The result, however, is injurious not only to 
the unfortunate women who are deserted, but 
to the reputation of England and of British 
subjects. The Birmah correspondent of the 
New York Tribune recently gave an expose 
of the consequences ensuing from such a 
demoralised state of society, calculated to 
enlist the sympathy of every- British philan¬ 
thropist, especially when it is remembered 










• 262 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


LChap. XII. 


how the religious and benevolent public of 
America have struggled to sow the seeds of 
truth both in British and native Birmah, and 
their noble exertions to save and educate the 
native females of those territories. Accord¬ 
ing to the statement in the Tribune, many 
Europeans take advantage of the customs 
above referred to, and often have families' by 
native women, who are left wholly destitute, 
the children to grow up heathens, and less 
cared for than those of Birmese fathers. The 
correspondent thus exemplifies his assertion : 

“ Three years ago this present month I 
was informed by a Birman that a young 
Englishman had entered the monasteries of 
the priests, and embraced the Buddhist reli¬ 
gion. I could not believe such a statement, 
and took no small pains to look into the 
matter. I found, to my inexpressible regret, 
that the cast-off son of an English gentleman 
had shaved his head, put on the yellow robes, 
and entered the monastery as a priest of 
Buddlia, where he daily bowed before the 
idols of Gotama, and was worshipped by the 
people as himself a god. His father was— 
he know not where. 

“ During the same season, while travelling 
in the jungle, remote from any city, I called 
at a small village, where my attention was 
arrested by a lad about twelve years of age 
under the care of a priest, and in training for 
the priesthood. He had the large Roman 
nose, an intelligent forehead, brown hair, and 
every feature indicated that he possessed a 
large share of English blood. I made inqui¬ 
ries concerning his parentage. He was the 
son of an English officer, but had never 
known his father. His mother died when he 
was an infant, and, but for the * tender mer¬ 
cies of the heathen,’ he would have been left 
to perish. My heart yearned for the poor 
boy. I would gladly have taken him to my 
heart’s home; but he had been given to the 
priests, who were unwilling to part with so 
valuable a prize. I have never seen or heard 
from him since. 

“ About two years ago I was passing by a 
market-place, and saw two girls-—perhaps I 
should say young ladies—of eighteen and 
twenty years of age selling fish and a variety 
of eatables. They were dressed in Birmese 
costumes, but so strong were their English 
features, that I inquired of a man near by 
concerning them. He said they were the 
daughters of an English officer, who left the 
place eighteen years ago, when the youngest 
was an infant. Their mother died soon after, 
and they had been brought up by their 
grandmother, who was very poor. They had 
no knowledge of their father. Neither could 
speak or read a word of English. They 


were heathen, although the daughters of a 
nominally Christian father. They lived, 
dressed, and worshipped as the heathen 
do—slept on a mat, and ate with their 
fingers. 

“ I called a few days ago at the house of a 
collector of revenues in this city. His wife 
was the daughter of an English physician 
once stationed here. She said she had been 
told by her mother that her father was Dr. 
somebody (I could not make out who), and 
that he lives at Madras, though she has not 
heard from him for many long years. Poor 
woman! I fear she will never hear from her 
father again. Her husband is a very strong 
Buddhist, and she joins with him in all his 
acts of heathen worship. 

“Not long since, while passing through 
the streets, I saw a little girl about two years 
of age. She possessed English features to a 
remarkable degree, and, more than all else, 
the Anglo-Saxon indomitable ruling propen¬ 
sity, for with a stick she was driving about 
the yard a number of children, some of whom 
were many years her seniors. I inquired 
concerning the child, and learned that it was 
the daughter of an 'officer who had left the 
place before the birth of the child. He had 
made no provision either for her or her 
mother. The mother had recently taken a 
Birmese husband. 

“ I called one day at a house where was a 
Birmese funeral. A large congregation had 
assembled, and among the crowd I noticed a 
white child about a year old. It was a bitter 
cold morning for this country. The poor 
child was bareheaded and barefooted, and 
covered only with a thin calico slip, through 
and under which the bitter east wind was 
piercing as the little one clung to the bosom 
of her mother, a thin delicate girl of eighteen. 
I inquired concerning the father of the child, 

and was told that its father was Captain --, 

who left the place about a year previous. 
For the first few months he sent the mother 
a small pittance per month, but she was now 
entirely dependent upon her own labour for 
the support of herself and her worse than 
fatherless infant. This captain, let it be 
remarked, bad an English wife and family, 
whom he left in Bengal while on these 
coasts.” 

The empire of Ava has few cities, yet the 
country places are sparsely inhabited, the 
people collecting in villages, as in India. 

There are two capitals—Ava and Umme- 
rapore; and these are the only towns of any 
great note in the Ava dominions. The first- 
named of these two cities is more properly 
designated Aingwa, but corrupted by Euro¬ 
peans into Ava. It is situated in latitude 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST 


2G3 


Uuap. XII.] 

21° 51' north, and longitude 95° 58' east. 
It is only four miles from Ummerapore, and 
both may be considered one city, from the 
intimate connection between them, the envi¬ 
rons of one nearly meeting the other. Ava 
is divided into two fortified departments—one 
only a mile in circumference, the other four 
miles. It is a place of temples, most of them 
passing into a state of dilapidation; but the 
superstitious people, although willing to build 
others, would regard it as sacrilege to repair 
those that still exist. In the temple of Loga- 
thero Praw there is a gigantic idol of Buddha, 
formed from a huge block of the purest 
marble. The idol occupies a sitting posture, 
and from the pedestal on wdiich it is repre¬ 
sented as sitting to the top of the head it 
measures thirty-four feet. The measurement 
across the breast is ten feet, and the diameter 
of the head is eight feet. Colonel Symes was 
of opinion that the temple was built over this 
colossal figure, as the door would be too small 
to admit even the head. Ummerapore (the 
city of the immortals) is situated on the banks 
of an extensive lake, seven miles long, and 
one and a half broad. It is well fortified, 
according to Birmese notions. The private 
buildings in Ummerapore and in Ava are 
mostly of wood, and frequent conflagrations 
devastate both. The temples of the former 
city are chiefly of wood, and richly gilded 
with the best Chinese gold-leaf both within 
and without. The amount of gold thus con¬ 
sumed is very considerable. The best build¬ 
ing is the imperial library, which is of great 
value, the books being covered with choice 
woods richly gilt. 

There are various ruined cities, possessing 
no traces of former greatness, nor any objects 
of value, except colossal images of Buddha. 

The conflicts with Britain have much hu¬ 
miliated this empire. They were generally 
begun by their imperial majesties with arro¬ 
gance, and ended in defeat and loss. Birmah 
is one of those antique old Eastern lands 
which must be rescued by truth and civiliza¬ 
tion, conveyed by Western instrumentality. 

AFGHANISTAN.* 

This country has been repeatedly the scene 
of English campaigning, and along its frontiers 
a border war lias been frequently sustained. 
It is bounded on the north by Little Thibet 
and Koondooz; on the north-east, by the 
Indian Caucasus and Little Thibet; on the 
cast, by the Punjaub and the line of the 
Indus; on the south-east, by Scinde; on 
the south, by Beloochistan; and on the west, 
by Persia. It is impossible to make any 
accurate statement of its area or population. 

* Aff-ghani-st'han. 


Its surface exceeds that of France, Belgium, 
and Holland. The population is supposed to 
be about six millions. 

The configuration of the country is hilly, 
and along its frontiers for the most part pic¬ 
turesque. The Hindoo Cush (Indian Cau¬ 
casus), a westerly extension of the Himalayas, 
and the Parapamisan, a still more westerly 
continuation of the same range, towering up 
into the regions of perpetual snow, present 
objects of sublimity along the north-eastern 
and northern frontier. The Suliman, and 
other ranges, diversify the scenery along the 
east, or Punjaub boundary. The streams 
flowing from these hills, especially from the 
line of the Hindoo Cush, fertilise the lower 
country. The border lands of Beloochistan 
are desert, like the neighbouring frontiers of 
that country. The rivers are not numerous. 
The Cabifl passes the city of that name, and 
flows eastward to the Indus, which it joins 
above Attock. At the confluence a remark¬ 
able ignis fatuus is seen every evening. The 
Cabul River is not voluminous, but, from the 
character of the country through which it 
flows, its descent to the level of the Indus is 
rapid. The Helmund directs its course west¬ 
ward, crossing a desert, and empties itself 
in the great lake Zerak. There are other 
rivers of some importance, but none large. 
Eastward, the Cashgar, Koomul, and Gorum, 
irrigate the country. To the west the country 
receives the fertilising influences of the Etty- 
mandur, the Urghundaub, the Kooshrood, 
the Furrakrood, and the Sera. The people 
are accustomed to cut great numbers of small 
channels from all the rivers and streams, some 
of which are exhausted upon the earth, for 
the fertilisation of which their course is thus 
checked. 

The south-west monsoon is heavy in some 
districts of the country, while others are, 
from their conformation, or westerly position, 
beyond its influence. 

In a region so hilly the climate must be 
various. The valleys experience the heat of 
a low latitude, while the high acclivities of 
the mountains are clothed with perpetual 
winter, and on the lower slopes a European 
climate is found, producing the fruits and 
vegetables of the temperate zone. The cli¬ 
mate seems especially influenced by the direc¬ 
tion of the winds, which, sometimes blowing 
from snow-capped mountains, or over desert 
wastes, are cold; in other directions, coming 
from regions more warm and humid, they 
are refreshing. The easterly winds are from 
such causes genial, while those from the west 
are severely cold, partaking in their character 
of the east winds in early spring in the 
metropolis, and along the east coast of Eng- 










264 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chat. XII. 


land. There are valleys which are so sur¬ 
rounded by mountains, that they can hardly 
be affected by winds, from whatever quarter. 

The appearance of the Affghans would im¬ 
press the traveller in favour of the climate. 
They are fair, tall, robust, and appear to enjoy 
good health, except from the influence of 
epidemics, which are numerous and severe. 
The most common are fever and ague in the 
hilly jungle districts; opthalmia near the 
deserts; catarrhs in the latter regions and on 
the highlands; and smallpox everywhere, 
which carries off great numbers. In winter 
Europeans suffer, especially in the higher 
districts, from coughs, and other pulmonary 
affections. During some seasons the winter 
has proved to Europeans as trying as that of 
Siberia. In January, 1842, the British army, 
in its retreat from Cabul, suffered terribly 
from this cause. The climate is generally 
very dry, rivalling Scinde in this respect, 
without being liable to the heavy and inces¬ 
sant rains at long intervals to which that 
country is subject. In some of the districts 
of Affghanistan the climate is supremely 
delightful; and old traditions exist in West¬ 
ern Asia that the region of Paradise was 
situated in that country, just as in Southern 
and Eastern Asia similar traditions point out 
Ceylon as the plaee where our first parents 
tasted the forbidden tree. 

The inhabitants believe that they are the 
descendants of Saul, King of Israel, and fre¬ 
quently apply to themselves the designation 
Beni-Israel. Some elaborate works have 
been written to prove this, and others to 
show that they are descendants of the tribes 
of Israel carried captive, whose abode it is 
so difficult to trace, but the argument is not 
satisfactory in either case to historians and 
ethnologists generally. 

The customs of the people and their man¬ 
ner of life differ much according to the phy¬ 
sical peculiarities of the districts which they 
inhabit. In some places they cultivate the 
soil, raising such products as are favoured by 
a tropical climate, or the cereal harvests of 
the temperate zone; in others they are culti¬ 
vators of widespread orchards, the bloom and 
fruit of which in their seasons present aspects 
of extraordinary loveliness. These orchards 
might be called fruit-tree forests, their extent 
is so vast. In some districts the people 
inhabit old cities founded by the Greeks 
or the old Affghan kings. In others the 
people occupy long straggling villages of 
mud-built huts, with wooden or tiled and 
terraced roofs. Large districts are occupied 
by tribes who feed their stock on the wild 
grass and herbage, moving about like the 
wandering shepherd races of ancient times, 


pitching their tents where the pasture more 
abounds, or some grateful stream supplies 
refreshment to the flocks and herds and those 
who tend them. However diversified then- 
habits and occupations, their homes and the 
sources of their support, their physical fea¬ 
tures are much the same, except in some 
border districts. They are bold, haughty, 
hospitable, vindictive, prompt to make war, 
tenacious in maintaining it, skilful in retreat, 
in pursuit vigilant, ever hanging upon the 
front flanks and rear of a regular army, ready 
to dispute its advance through some defile, or 
cut off stragglers in the weary march. Many 
of the people expect that they are at some 
future period to march as conquerors through 
Persia, and to settle in the ancient land of 
Israel. Such an expectation is the more re¬ 
markable, as, with the exception of a few 
half pagan border tribes, they are fierce Mo¬ 
hammedans. The destinies which they make 
out for themselves are reconciled to their 
religion by the notion that the earth is to 
be one day subject to the Prophet; that to 
him all nations shall bend the knee, and in 
him is the fulfilment of all things. His dis¬ 
ciples have a right to universal possession, 
and what portion of the world so suitable for 
the Beni-Israel as the land of their fathers? 
It is not to be supposed from these vaticina¬ 
tions and hopes that the Affghans are indiffe¬ 
rent to their own country ; they are patriotic, 
and capable of stong local attachments; and 
their belief that Eden was a portion of their 
country adds to the attachment which they 
feel; but they suppose that it is their destiny 
to move forward, or for a considerable portion 
of them to do so, to the land of promise, from 
which their supposed progenitors were exiled. 
These views are not shared equally by all 
the tribes, some of whom could not be per¬ 
suaded to forsake their mountains permanently 
for any reward, although always willing to 
make border raids for plunder, even where the 
gain is doubtful and the danger imminent. 
On the frontiers of Scinde and the Punjaub 
some of the tribes are the fiercest Moham¬ 
medan fanatics in the world. 

The Affghans make good soldiers when 
employed under our Indian officers. The 
infantry of their own chiefs is very ineffec¬ 
tive, except in mountain warfare, being 
wholly without discipline. They were shat¬ 
tered by the first volley of the infantry 
of old Runjeet Singh. Their cavalry is very 
good as irregulars; the horses are of superior- 
breeds, some resembling the Arab in form, 
but larger; others are of a rude appearance, 
and vicious, but strong, fleet, and enduring. 
Thus mounted, these wild horsemen made 
splendid charges upon the infantry of the old 




IX INDIA AND THE EAST. 


265 


Ciiap. XII.] 

Khalsa army, but were broken upon tbe 
squares of those fine battalions. Before 
British discipline the Affghans never made 
any stand, except where very small numbers 
were engaged, and the conflict was hand to 
hand, or whete, protected in some narrow 
defile, they could deliberately take aim with 
their long matchlocks. 

The commerce of the country is in a very 
backward condition, although there are many 
products which would be acceptable to their 
neighbours, and some wants to supply, which 
the resources of the countries beyond theirs 
could satisfy. 

There are no navigable rivers, and no 
good roads; over a large portion of the 
country there are no roads of any kind: 
these are of course impediments to com¬ 
merce of a most formidable kind. Camels 
are employed in travelling and bearing bur¬ 
thens, as are also horses, which are singularly 
sure-footed. Caravans are formed, which 
trade between Chinese Turkistan and Cabul, 
and between Persia and India, bearing the 
products of those lands to Affghanistan, and 
returning with the productions of the latter. 
The dromedary is also useful for travelling 
and trading purposes, and is much used in all 
the plain country, especially in the portions 
that are dry and sandy. These animals not 
only carry the articles of exchange, but are 
objects of commerce. The tall, long-legged 
dromedary, known in Western India, is im¬ 
ported from Affghanistan, and the Bactria camel 
is much valued in Scinde and the Punjaub. 
This animal is very strong, covered with 
shaggy hair. The camel and dromedary are 
exchanged for the oxen of the Rajpoots. The 
sheep of the mountains are an article of com¬ 
merce, as is also the wool they produce. 
These sheep have large flat tails a foot broad, 
and are almost entirely composed of fat. 
Goats, with long twisted horns, are abundant 
in the mountains; both the hair and horns 
of these animals are of some commercial 
value. 

There are various wild animals which are 
hunted, not only for the skins, which are 
bartered, but for food. The hunting dogs 
possessed by the Affghans are very superior, 
the greyhound and the pointer equalling the 
best breeds in England. English officers and 
civilians purchase them. The Affghans are 
also expert in training eagles and hawks for 
the chase. Europeans fond of wild sports 
could find abundant occupation in the moun¬ 
tains which separate our Indian dominions 
from Affghanistan. The chirk is a bird which 
the mountaineers have taught to strike the 
antelope, and fasten on the head until the 
greyhound comes up. The lion hunter might 

VOL. I. 


possibly find the object of his pursuit in the 
hilly country of Cabul, but the animal is now 
extremely scarce: some writers state that it 
is extinct. 

The country seldom suffers from locusts, 
and the people are very little annoyed by 
mosquitoes, a circumstance important to the 
lovers of field sports. In their pursuit of 
game the people incur great danger from 
various species of venomous reptiles, while 
the tiger and wild boar sometimes, and the 
bear frequently, endanger their pursuers. 
Sometimes the black bear will descend from 
the wooded hills to feast in a field of sugar¬ 
cane, and will defend himself with formidable 
strength and long-sustained ferocity. The 
wild sheep, wild goat, and wild dogs, are 
favourite objects of Affghan sport. 

There are few mineral resources of the 
country used as articles of commerce, but it 
can hardly be doubted, little as those regions 
are explored, that the riches of the mountains 
are vast. Gold has been found in the streams. 
Silver has also been discovered. Beautiful 
rubies have been brought by the Persian, 
Scinde, and Punjaub merchants. Cliffs over¬ 
hang the Cashgar River, containing lapis 
lazuli - lead, iron, sulphur, and antimony, have 
been obtained. Saltpetre abounds ; rock-salt 
is taken from “the salt range;” alum is ex¬ 
tracted from the clay at Calabaugh ; orpiment 
is procured at Bulk, and from the country of 
the Huzzaras.* 

The timber of Affghanistan will become 
increasing valuable to the inhabitants of 
Scinde and the Punjaub. Among the trees 
suitable for commerce are cedar, oak, walnut, 
birch, &c., and some woods of wild fruit trees 
beautifully adapted for tasteful cabinet ar¬ 
ticles. 

The countries with which the Affghans 
trade besides the British territories adjoining, 
are Chinese Turkistan, Thibet, Turkistan, 
Beloochistan, Persia, and Arabia, by way of 
the port of Kurrachee, in Scinde. To British 
territory are sent horses, ponies, sheep, goats, 
hunting dogs, wool, horn, skins, furs, hair, 
honey, and other animal products; madder, 
asafcetida, tobacco, almonds, pistachio-nuts, 
walnuts, hazel-nuts, and a vast quantity of 
fruits both fresh and dried. Shawls, manu¬ 
factured partly in Affghanistan and partly in 
Thibet, and cotton, are also sent down to 
India. The Affghans derive in return spices, 
cowrie shells, musk, coral, cotton cloths, silk 
cloths, indigo, ivory, chalk, bamboos, tin, and 
sandal-wood. The horses exported from 
Affghanistan to India are generally natives 

* Certain hill tribes. The name, meaning a thousand, 
is used to denote the reputed number of their tribes.— 
Milnek. 


M M 














266 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Ohap. XII. 


of Turkistan, but are sold as of Affghan 
breed. 

The people live well, as fruits, vegetables, 
and animals abound. So plentiful is fruit at 
Oabul, that grapes sell for one farthing a 
pound, and even more than that weight is very 
frequently given for so small a sum. 

It is beyond the province of this work to 
give a minute historical account of the various 
tribes by which the country is peopled. Few 
tribes can number a very numerous fraternity, 
for the whole population is not more than that 
of Belgium and Holland, and the number of 
tribes is exceeding great. Sometimes these 
amalgamate, or form a net-work of alliance 
along our frontier, rendering them formidable 
so long as they act together, and are hostile, 
which their predatory habits dispose them to 
be, when the fear of British soldiers does not 
operate to deter their incursions, or wise 
policy does not conciliate them. Union, how¬ 
ever, is not an Affghan virtue: a certain 
saint of theirs left this prophecy concerning 
them, which some interpret as a malediction, 
and others a benediction—“ Always free, but 
never united.” 

The Huzzaras and Eimanks inhabit what 
is supposed to be the original home of the 
ancient Affghan race, by those who allege 
that the present stock is from the ten tribes 
of Israel: certainly the difference in appear¬ 
ance, language, and habits between the two 
septs or nations, whichever they may be, in 
relation to one another, justifies the supposi¬ 
tion of distinct origins. These old tribes, 
however, proclaim themselves to be of Arab 
line, an opinion which many British officers 
who have served on the frontier have adopted. 
The Huzzara (or Hazerah) country is now 
British territory, as was shown on a former 
page. After the termination of the Sikh war 
it was made over to Gholab Singh, but, from 
the turbulent character of the people, the 
ameer was not likely to hold it in subjection, 
and other territory adjoining the Jummoo 
frontier was given in exchange. Tribes of 
the same race as the Huzzaras extend along 
our whole Punjaub frontier; and were it not 
for the skill with which Sir Henry Lawrence 
and his fellow-commissioners, and afterwards 
Sir John Lawrence, conducted their frontier 
operations, it would have been impossible to 
have secured British authority within the 
conquered dominions of Dhuleep Singh. 
Other tribes, more warlike still than the 
Huzzaras, but of kindred blood and character, 
dominated them, and urged them to conflict 
with the various occupants of the Punjaub, 
Sikhs and British. Sir Henry Lawrence ob¬ 
served in his report:—“ The Gukkeers, Gug- 
gers, and the other aborigines of Huzzara, , 


have most of them been mastered by Patlian 
invaders from beyond the Indus. These 
chieftains, secure in their fastnesses, and con¬ 
nected by ties of consanguinity and fellow- 
feeling with tribes still wilder than them¬ 
selves, had been accustomed not only to spurn 
all constituted authority, but actually to exact 
black mail from the rulers of the Punjaub. 
The Moguls, and subsequently the Douranees, 
failed to master them; and the Sikhs, after 
having been frequently foiled, at length nomi¬ 
nally accomplished their subjugation, by stir¬ 
ring up internal faction, and by the perpetra¬ 
tion of countless acts of cruelty and treachery. 
But the conquerors held little more than the 
ground occupied by their garrisons; and the 
mountaineers, kept down only by a movable 
column kept constantly in the field, took 
advantage of the Sutlej campaign to rise, en 
masse, and recapture all the forts.” 

Sir Henry, having noticed the Huzzara and 
the tribes of the Trans-Indus frontier, ob¬ 
served :—“ On account of the notoriety which 
many of the hill tribes had attained, and the 
large armaments which have been employed 
against them, it will be not amiss to group 
the several races under one view, and thus to 
complete the portraiture. The two main 
denominations are, firstly, of mixed tribes, 
chiefly of- Affghan and Turkish descent, and 
secondly, Belooch tribes.* 

“ The mixed tribes hold the mountains from 
Huzzara and Peshawur to Dera Futteh Khan, 
and consist of the following sub-divisions:— 
Turnoulees, Momunds, Afreedees, Khuttuks, 
Pathans, Bungush, Orakzyes, Wuzeerees, 
Sheeranees, and Bhuttenees. The Beloochees 
tenant the hill ranges from Dera Futteh 
Khan to the south-western extremity of the 
Derajat, and to the borders of Scinde; their 
sub-divisions are the Ooshteranees, the Boz- 
dars, Ligharees, Boogtees, Murrees, and 
Ghoorchanees. 

“ The Turnoulees chiefly belong to Huzzara, 
but they hold lands on both sides of the 
Indus. Leagued with the Jadoons of the 
Mahabur, and with the Chuggerzyes, Hus- 
sunzyes, and other northern Patlian tribes, 
they proved most formidable opponents to 
the Sikhs. It was in their country that 
Mr. Carne, the collector of Customs, was 
murdered. 

‘•'West and south-west of Peshawur, the 
most important tribe are the Afreedees. They 
hold the Khyber and Koliat passes. The 
numerous sections of the tribe (khei/ls), each 
headed by its chief, have been usually split 
up into factions, and united only to oppose the 
sovereigns of the Punjaub and of Cabul, and 
to levy black mail from travellers and mer- 
* To be noticed under Bcloochistan. 




Chap. XII.] 


IX INDIA AND THE EAST. 


207 


chants. All the great invaders and the 
supreme potentates of northern India have 
successively had these Afreedees in their pay 
—Ghengiz, Timour, Baber, Nadir Shah, 
Ahmed Shah, the Barukzyes, the Sikhs, and 
lastly, the British. To all these unmanage¬ 
able mountaineers have been treacherous. 
In each kheyl, some will receive money from 
a government, and will connive with the 
remainder in stopping its convoys, plundering 
the baggage, and murdering stragglers. Their 
hills near the Khyber are difficult for military 
operations; but the highlands of Turee, 
which stretch hack into the interior, and in 
which the Afreedees, together with the Orak- 
zyes, and others, take up their summer abode, 
are accessible from Kohat, and possess a cli¬ 
mate congenial to Europeans. In their plain 
settlements they are merely squatters, who 
have won their acres by the sword, and pay 
revenue with the utmost unwillingness and 
irregularity. They are not deficient in apti¬ 
tude for husbandry. Men descended from 
the same stock with them farm some of the 
most highly-cultivated garden-lands in Fur- 
ruckabad. They are brave and hardy, good 
soldiers, and better marksmen. The best 
shots in the Guide corps are Afreedees. 
Perhaps two hundred of them may be found 
scattered among the Punjaub regiments. If 
placed as escort or sentries over treasure, they 
are not to be trusted ; but in action they are 
true to the salt, even when fighting against 
their own brethren. In this fidelity they are 
not singular. Fanatic Mohammedans every¬ 
where will fight against men of their own 
creed, on behalf of the infidel, Hindoo, Sikh, 
or British. 

“ The Momunds have of late gained a noto¬ 
riety by their desultory skirmishing with the 
British troops. They inhabit the hills north 
of the Khyber, and hold both banks of the 
Cabul River. Their capital, Lalpurah, is 
situated just beyond the north-western extre¬ 
mity of the Khyber. They have encroached 
upon the plains, and now possess some of the 
richest lands in the Doab, from Michnee, 
where the Cabul River debouches from the 
hills, to Mutta, on the Swat River. They 
have also extensively colonized south of the 
Cabul River. In many points of character 
they resemble the Afreedees, but are inferior 
as soldiers. 

“ The Eusufzye Pathans and their martial 
qualities have been already mentioned. At 
the battle of Turee, which gave the sove¬ 
reignty of Peshawur to the Sikhs, the Eusuf- 
zyes formed the strength of the Mohammedan 
army, which, numbering thirty thousand men, 
withstood a Sikh force of equal numbers, 
supported by guns, and headed by Runjeet 


Singh himself. On another occasion, they 
surrounded and attacked a body of Sikb irre¬ 
gular cavalry, eight thousand strong; the 
maharajah was absent, but Hurree Singh, 
Nulwa, and forty other sirdars, the flower of 
the Sikh chivalry, were present. These 
chiefs, feeling their position to be desperate, 
charged with the utmost gallantry, and cut a 
way through their assailants—a heterogeneous 
mass of undisciplined fanatics. 

“ The Khuttuks dwell in the hills south of 
Peshawur, and the plain which lies between 
the base of these hills and the Cabul River. 
In the Kohat valley, also, they are the pre¬ 
dominating tribe. They hold the Kooshalghur 
Pass, leading from the Indus into Kohat, and 
offering the easiest entrance to the valley. 

“ Of these four great tribes, the Afreedees 
and Momunds have repeatedly appeared in 
arms against us since annexation; while the 
Eusufzyes and Khuttuks have never fired a 
shot except on our side: yet neither of the 
two latter are inferior to the former in manli¬ 
ness or spirit. Even during Avitabile’s reign 
of terror, they never abated their resistance 
to Sikh authority. This relentless ruler 
never ventured into the Khuttuk valley, or 
the Eusufzye plains. 

“ The Orakzyes are to he met with to the 
north-west of Kohat, near the Hungoo valley. 

“ The Bungush tribe inhabit the enclosed 
plain of Meeranzye, and also the Khoorum 
valley, within the Cabul limits. 

“ The Wuzeerees have their abode in the 
hills south-west of Kohat, overlooking the 
Bunnoo valley. The internal history of this 
remarkable tribe is fully set forth in the 
volumes of Mr. Elphinstone and Major Ed- 
wardes. They occupy numerous passes open¬ 
ing into the Tank and Bunnoo valleys. The 
hill, which overhangs the western face of the 
Soorduk defile, is always held by them. 
The British government is peculiarly inte¬ 
rested in the guarding of the Soorduk Pass, 
as it forms the direct line of communication 
between Bahadoor Kheyl and Bunnoo. The 
nomadic habits of this tribe have been pre¬ 
viously touched upon; they are both graziers 
and robbers. Commanding the main channel 
of commerce from Cabul and Ghuznee to the 
Punjaub and Hindoostan, they strive to levy 
contributions (with more or less success) from 
the Provindeahs, those warrior merchants 
whose hardihood and perseverance command 
a passage from Ghuznee to Derajat. 

“ Between Tank and Bunnoo, the Ghubber 
mountain, a large mass protruding into the 
plains, is infested by a predatory tribe named 
Mithanees, who are perpetually at feud with 
the Wuzeerees. 

“ On the mountainous border of Dera 








-268 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[CilAl*. XII. 


Ismail Khan, the most formidable tribe are the 
Slieeranees; they have frequently descended 
to rob and murder.” 

The late governor-general of India,* in mi¬ 
nutes entered the 9th of May, 1853, thus notices 
the Affghan tribes which have been enume¬ 
rated and described in the above portions of 
the report of the Punjaub commissioners,-)- and 
refers to the importance of our frontier rela¬ 
tions to Affghanistan, as affecting the main¬ 
tenance of a standing army along the border 
line to prevent invasion. Peace has, how¬ 
ever, been principally maintained by the 
intelligence and skill of the Lawrences and 
their coadjutors, rather than by an imposing 
array of arms:— 

“ The frontier, indeed, has not been free 
from disturbance, but the attacks upon it 
have been made, not by the ruler of Oabul, 
but by the wild tribes of the bills, who, if 
they are hostile to us, are not one whit more 
so than they are to the ameer, and to all 
mankind besides. There has not been war 
upon the frontiers, but forays over the border. 
These tribes have been murderers and plun¬ 
derers since the days of Ishmael, their father; 
and it is not to be expected in reason that 
they should at once be converted to order 
and harmlessness, merely because British rule 
has been advanced to the foot of their moun¬ 
tain fastnesses. Much, however, has already 
been done. 

“A policy of forbearance and defence was 
enjoined towards them. The lands they had 
held in the plains were left to them, and their 
communities were in no respect interfered 
with, so long as they respected the rights 
and the security of others. When after a 
time the tribes in the Derajat, and above the 
Peshawur valley, began to commit aggres¬ 
sions, defensive measures alone were taken, 
while warning was given that a repetition of 
6ucli aggressions would bring down punish¬ 
ment on their heads. When the warnings 
repeatedly given to them were disregarded, 
our subjects murdered, and their property 
destroyed; and when it became apparent that 
the tribes were misconstruing the forbearance 
of the British government, and were presum¬ 
ing on the supposed inaccessibility of their 
mountain retreats, the government felt it to 
he its duty to have recourse to sterner mea¬ 
sures and severer retribution. 

“ The punishment of the valley of Ranizaie 
by the force under Sir Colin Campbell, of the 
Syuds of Khagan and of the Huzzumzies by 
Colonel Maclteson, of the Omerzye Wuzeerees 
by Major Nicholson, and more lately of the 

* The Marquis of Dalhousie. 

t Sir Henry Lawrence, Mr. John Lawrence, Mr. Man¬ 
sell, and (his successor) Mr. Montgomery. 


Slieeranees and Kusranees, on the borders 
of the Derajat, have given to those wild 
people a lesson, which will have, I doubt not, 
the best effects, and indeed has already pro¬ 
duced them. During the past cold season no 
single outrage has been committed upon the 
Peshawur frontier. 

“ The people of Ranizaie, and the several 
divisions of the Momund tribes that have 
been punished, have made their submission, 
have asked permission to re-occupy their 
lands, and have offered to pay for them reve¬ 
nue-—a sign of subjection which they have 
never exhibited before to any previous dy¬ 
nasty, whether Mogul or Persian, Affghan 
or Sikh.” 

The whole of the chiefs of Affghanistan, 
whether on the British, Belooch, Thibetian, 
or Persian frontier, are subject to the reigning 
monarch at Cabul. He has the right of 
making peace and declaring war, but cannot 
cede territory. His grand vizier has the 
chief responsibilities of government. Previous 
to the inroads of the Sikhs and British, the 
kingdom was divided into twenty-seven pro¬ 
vinces, eighteen of which had separate go¬ 
vernors. These were Herat, Furrah, Can- 
daliar, Ghuznee, Cabul, Bamian, Ghorebund, 
Jellalabad, Lughman, Peshawur, Dera Ismail 
Khan, Sliikarpore, Sewee, Scinde, Cashmere, 
Chuch Huzzara, Seia, and Mooltan. Several 
of those provinces fell under the dominion of 
Runjeet Singh, and were conquered by the 
British from Dhuleep Singh, and now many 
of the principal Affghan provinces are placed 
under the British non-regulation provinces 
of Scinde and the Punjaub. Herat has 
lately been the cause of a war between 
Great Britain and Persia, the province lying 
sufficiently near the Persian frontier to attract 
the covetousness and ambition of that power. 
It has, by treaty on the part of the courts of 
London, Teheran, and Cabul, been recognised 
as an independent territory. 

The language of the Affghans is called 
Pushtoo. Its origin is a matter of dispute 
among philologists. Some maintain that it is 
an original language. Sir William Jones 
considered it a dialect of the Chaldee of 
Scripture. The Persian alphabet is employed 
by the Affghans; hut as there are sounds in 
the Pushtoo which the Persian character will 
not express, they adopt a system of points. 
The literature of the country is Persian. 

The sect of Mohammedans to which most 
of the Affghans belong is the Sooni. 

The power of the kings of Cabul before the 
loss of so many fine provinces was very con¬ 
siderable, and the population, in 1809, ac¬ 
cording to the computation of Elphinstone, 
was nearly treble what it is now. 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


269 


Chap. XII.] 

There are few countries so capable of resist¬ 
ing invasion as Affghanistan. On the side of 
India it can only be entered through defiles, 
where a small band of resolute and well-dis¬ 
ciplined men could defend them against hosts. 
The Bolan Pass, en route {rom Scinde to Can- 
dahar, and the Khyber Pass, leading from 
the Punjaub to Oabul, illustrate the inaccessi¬ 
bility of the country by hostile forces, if the 
defence be firm and intelligent. From Tur- 
kistan the passes through the Parapamisan 
and the Hindoo Cush are still more formid¬ 
able, rising to elevations of eleven and twelve 
thousand feet. Herat is the key of Affghani¬ 
stan from the side of Persia, and some have 
called it the key of British India. 

There is a peculiarity in the antiquities of 
Affghanistan and its borders on the Persian 
side very remarkable. Round towers, gene¬ 
rally of stone, called topes, the largest of which 
are about a hundred and fifty feet in circuit 
at the base, and rising to the height of sixty 
feet, are to be found in various parts of the 
country. Their origin or use cannot be 
traced. Some of them have been proved to 
contain square chambers, in which ashes, 
rings, vessels, and relics, have been found, 
the nature of which could not be ascertained. 
Burnes pronounced them to be the tombs of 
kings, but he did so on insufficient evidence. 
These towers resemble the round towers in 
Ireland, concerning which also conjecture is 
lost in the remoteness of antiquity.* Various 
authorities have assigned to the latter a pur¬ 
pose similar to that which Burnes ascribes to 
the round towers of Oabul. Others believe 
them to have been erected as temples of the 
sun; and certain writers deem them to have 
been the emblems of a philosophical and yet 
more corrupt idolatry. No doubt they are 
of oriental origin, and a correct theory in 
reference to them would throw light upon the 
antiquity of the Affghan towers. 

Tire morals of the people are sufficiently 
indicated by the quotations from Sir Henry 
Lawrence and Lord Dalhousie. Treachery, 
indifference to human life, eagerness for 
plunder, a love of feud and tribal conflict, 
vindictiveness, and wild fanaticism, seem to 
be striking characteristics on the unfavourable 
side. Bravery and hospitality are the virtues 
most prized and practised by them. 

Cabul is the Affghan capital. It is situated 
in the north-east, on the Cabul River. The 
site is nearly six thousand four hundred feet 
above the level of the sea. The soil is pro¬ 
ductive, and the climate delightful. Orchards 
surround the city, yielding the many kinds of 
Asiatic and most descriptions of European 
fruit. The population is sixty thousand. In 
* Petrie; O’Brien. 


the centre of a garden outside the city two 
slabs of beautiful marble mark the graves of 
Baber, the founder of the Mogul empire in 
India. Both within and without the city 
flowers are much cultivated, and very nume¬ 
rous and beautiful varieties spring up in the 
fields, orchards, and on the hill-sides. The 
jessamine, narcissus, hyacinth, poppy, tube¬ 
rose, and common English flowers, are every¬ 
where to be seen. The country is not well 
wooded, but the hills nourish birch, holly, 
and hazel, and on the low grounds the mul¬ 
berry, tamarisk, and willow. The pistachio 
is to be met with on the hills near Cabul, but 
along the Hindoo Cush it grows abundantly. 
The wild olive, and a gigantic species of 
cypress, are favourite trees with the people. 
Timber becomes more scarce in the neigh¬ 
bourhood, and the inhabitants complain of 
want of fuel. 

The sufferings of the British army in 1842 
from the severity of the climate has created 
an impression in England that, from the ele¬ 
vated situation of the city, the winters are in¬ 
tolerably cold, but, although sometimes very 
inclement, they are not generally severer than 
in England. The summer climate is really 
trying to Europeans, for the city is so shut in 
by hills, that there is not a free play of air, 
and the heat becomes intense. For a few 
weeks after midsummer the valley of Cabul 
has been compared to a furnace. The closely 
encircling hills afford protection from the 
winds and snow-storms of winter. It would 
appear that the climate in this region was in 
ancient times more temperate as to heat and 
cold than it is now, for Indian and Persian 
writers of antiquity celebrate its genial cha¬ 
racter in prose and verse. The scenery of 
the province is very lovely, variety being 
given by the ever-changing aspects of the 
mountains, dependent upon light and shade, 
and the different points of view presented by 
every change of the observer’s position. The 
infinite variety of fruit blossom, and of flowers 
which cover the earth a large portion of the 
year, also give a peculiar charm to the land¬ 
scape. 

The predominating tribe of Affghanistan 
(the Douranee) inhabits the province of Cabul. 
The throne is occupied by a Douranee dy¬ 
nasty, which was founded by one of the offi¬ 
cers of Nadir Shah, on the death of that dis¬ 
tinguished personage, in 1747. Shah Soojah 
was deposed in 1810, the people having re¬ 
belled, and rival chiefs having successfully 
intrigued against his person and dynasty. 
The shah fled for protection to Runjeet 
Singh, bearing with him the Koh-i-noor, or 
“mountain of light,” the most splendid and 
valuable diamond known. Runjeet did not 










270 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XII. 


scruple to deprive the refugee of his treasure ; 
hut retribution followed, for the kingdom of 
Runjeet was in turn subdued by a more 
powerful foe; the diamond became a trophy 
of war, and was destined to reflect its glory 
upon Queen Victoria. 

The Douranees are very eager to establish 
their descent from Israel. They say that 
Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, consigned 
their ancestors to the country of Cabul after 
the overthrow of the temple and city of Jeru¬ 
salem. This view was adopted by the oriental 
scholar Sir William Jones, the diplomatist Sir 
Alexander Burnes,and the Baptist missionaries 
Drs. Carey and Marshman. Modern oriental¬ 
ists and philologists dispute these claims ; yet 
while the argument on the negative side 
seems unanswerable, it is very remarkable 
how such a tradition of their origin should 
exist among the people themselves. 

There is an Armenian colony in the valley, 
whose fathers were brought thither by Nadir 
Shah during his Turkish wars; also a Hindoo 
settlement of remote antiquity; and another 
of Usbeck Tartars. It would seem to have 
been the policy of various princes to colonize 
that region with foreign and even remote 
peoples, and this circumstance gives some 
weight to the views of those who suppose that 
there has been a colonization of Hebrews. 

Cabul is computed to be 839 miles (travel¬ 
ling distance) from Delhi, 976 from Agra, 
1118 from Lucknow, and 1815 from Calcutta. 

South of Cabul is the ancient city of Ghuznee 
(or Ghuzni), situated in latitude 33° 10' north, 
and longitude 66° 57' east. This was once 
the capital of an empire which stretched from 
the Ganges to the Tigris. Like Cabul, its 
better fortunes are in the past, although, also 
like that city, it has had' a chequered history. 
The climate is intensely cold, owing to the 
great elevation of the district above the level 
of the sea. The inhabitants of the city are 
obliged some years to remain more than six 
months within their houses, in consequence 
of protracted winter, which often continues 
beyond the vernal equinox. On at least one 
occasion, at a remote period, the city was 
buried beneath a fall of snow; in several in¬ 
stances it narrowly escaped a similar fate. 
The productions of the country around are 
such as might be predicted of an elevated 
region exposed to such a climate. The only 
animals which thrive are camels, although 
hardy breeds of sheep and goats subsist. 

Old travellers have given accounts of ruins 
and other traces of magnificence, but few now 
remain, and the city is little better than a 
large and squaKd village. There are, how¬ 
ever, some architectural remains of interest, 
and some slight vestiges of “ the palace of 


felicity,” where kings held sway, and of the 
mosque once called the “Celestial Bride.” 
The tomb of Mahmoud still exists. He was 
the conqueror of India, and the founder of 
the Ghuznee dominion. This tomb is about 
three miles from the existing city—a spacious 
but not magnificent, building, covered with a 
cupola. The tombstone is of white marble, 
bearing sculptured verses of the Koran. At 
its head lies the mace which the deceased 
monarch is said to have wielded. It is plain, 
with a heavy head of metal; few men could 
use it with effect from its great weight. 
There are thrones also placed within the 
tomb, said to have been used by the monarch; 
they are not remarkable, except for being 
beautifully inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The 
gates of this tomb were splendid pieces of 
sandal-wood, which had been brought from 
Somnautli, in the Gujerat peninsula. After 
the lapse of seven centuries, these gates were 
borne away by the British army, in 1842, by 
command of the governor-general of India, 
Lord Ellenborough, and restored to Somnauth. 
His lordship was much censured, and even 
abused, for this act in England; it was re¬ 
garded as an indication of his indifference to 
Christianity, and his desire to foster the pre¬ 
judices and bigotry of the people of India as 
a matter of unprincipled expediency. His 
lordship did not deserve these censures; he 
removed the gates on a principle that was as 
clear and politic as it w T as just. It was to 
restore to the people of India what once was 
theirs, which they prized, he being their 
governor, and they having vanquished under 
his orders the enemy whose ancestors had 
made a trophy of these costly doors. The 
act was also poolitic towards the Affglaans, as 
leaving them a lasting lesson that their 
country was not inaccessible to British arms. 
It was not his aim to conciliate the Affghans 
at that juncture, but to impress them with the 
power of the Indian government—the best 
mode at the juncture of dealing with them. 
There was one light in which the act of the 
governor-general might be viewed as of ques¬ 
tionable prudence. The gates were taken 
from a Mohammedan city, and a spot held 
sacred by Mohammedan feeling; it might 
offend the disciples of “the Prophet” in 
India, and shake their loyalty. That people 
care little for country where creed is con¬ 
cerned. A foreign Mohammedan invader 
would be more welcome who came with des¬ 
potism and the Koran than the most tolerant 
native prince of any other persuasion^ although 
he governed with moderation and justice, 
and secured the peace and prosperity of the 
people. Lord Ellenborough took pains to 
show that the act was performed on his part 




Chap. XII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


271 


without any reference to the religion of the 
people of Gujerat or of Ghuznee, but solely as 
a matter of political justice. 

There is a small tomb remaining built in 
honour of Hakim Sunai, a poet, which shows 
that the ancient Affghans of Ghuznee honoured 
literature, and blended the tombs of their 
poets with those of their holy men and 
kings. 

Candahar is on the site of one of the cities 
founded by Alexander the Great, and is now 
one of the chief commercial marts for the 
productions of India and Persia. It has 
become well known in England in connection 
with the operations of Generals Nott and 
England in the great Affghan war. It is 
fortified after the rude manner of the wild 
people of these regions. It is situated in 
latitude 36° 11' north, and longitude 66° 28' 
east. “ The heat is very severe, and the cold 
temperate, except in the months of December 
and January, when water freezes. Here are 
flowers and fruits in abundance.” * This ac¬ 
count of the climate, given more than three 
hundred years ago, is strictly applicable now. 
It was once the capital of the Douranee empire, 
before the son of Timour transferred the seat 
of power and regal honour to Cabul. The 
population is an assemblage of very various 
tribes and nations, each occupying a separate 
quarter of the city. The entire number of 
the inhabitants was in 1820 f more than a 
hundred thousand; there has not since been 
made a more accurate or careful computation, 
and it is probable that no great change has in 
this respect taken place. The Douranee Aff¬ 
ghans constitute more than half the number 
of residents.^: Jews form a more respectable 
portion of the citizens than they do of any 
other Affghan city. § The Armenians, al¬ 
though not as numerous as at Cabul, are 
respectable in numbers as well as in position. 
The bankers and brokers are chiefly Hindoos. 
The city is as well regulated as most towns 
of the European continent, and it is better 
laid out than probably any other in Asia. 
There are many excellent houses occupied by 
Douranee chiefs and wealthy Hindoos and 
Persians. The public buildings are not cha¬ 
racterised by originality or beauty, but they are 
respectable, especially the palace, the tomb of 
Ahmed Shah, and one of the mosques.|| 

The neighbourhood, like Cabul, is planted 
with orchards, which extend to a great dis¬ 
tance around the city, and add beauty to the 
otherwise very pleasant character of the sce¬ 
nery, which, being level and fertile, yields 
freely to the hand of the cultivator. Madder, 

* Abul Fazel. t Hamilton. 

$ Seid Mustapha. f Elphiustone 

[1 Forster. 


asafcetida, bicerne, and clover, are reared in 
great quantities, but the chief object of cul¬ 
ture is tobacco, which finds a ready sale in 
Affghanistan, the tobacco of Candahar having 
an extensive reputation. 

The whole province has a high character 
for the value and variety of its productions. 
At the close of the last century a native tra¬ 
veller * published a minute account of its 
people and productions, and he stated that 
the province of Candahar was rich in “ wheat, 
rice, jouree, grain, peas, dates, almonds, 
saffron, and flowers.” The wheat is called 
white wheat, and is eagerly purchased through¬ 
out Affghanistan, and in contiguous coun¬ 
tries. Mosques abound all over the province. 
The Brahminical Hindoos who settle there 
frequently conform to the religion of Mo¬ 
hammed. According to the native traveller 
before quoted, the domestic animals are camels 
and dogs, the latter of peculiarly fine breeds. 
The province is thinly inhabited, and contains 
very wild districts, where tigers, buffaloes, 
deer, and antelopes, abound. 

Karabaugh (ksliarabag , the salt garden) 
stands in latitude 33° 4' north, and longitude 
71° 17' east. The Indus is here compressed 
by the mountains into a channel only three 
hundred and fifty yards broad, but very deep. 
The best account of this neighbourhood is 
that of Elphinstone, who represents the 
mountains descending abruptly to the river, 
a road cut along their base, and stretching 
away beyond the town, hewn out of the solid 
salt rock. The first part of the pass is lite¬ 
rally overhung by the town, which rises street 
above street on terraces of giddy elevation. 
The variety of colours presented to the eye 
is very striking in the town and neighbour¬ 
hood, the clear beautiful shining crystal of 
the salt contrasting with the deep blue waters 
of the Indus, and the colour of the earth 
around is nearly of a blood-red. f 

Bameean is situated in a region of moun¬ 
tain grandeur, where the climate is pleasant 
in summer but severe in winter. It may be 
called a trogloditic city, the neighbourhood 
being remarkable for excavations in the hills, 
the people in considerable numbers living in 
these caves. | 

The policy which our Indian government 
should pursue in the affairs of Affghanistan 
is a vexata qucestio. Frequently the necessity 
of active alliance with the Douranee chief, or 
active war against him, has pressed itself 
upon the attention of the government of 
England. In 1809 it was discovered that 
the French were endeavouring to form a con¬ 
federacy with Persia for the invasion of Aff- 

* Seid Mustapha. f Elphinstone. 

J Milner. 







272 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XII. 


ghanistan, and thence of British India. The 
Hon. Mr. Elphinstone was accordingly sent as 
ambassador to the court of Cabul to offer 
alliance. Shah Shujah, the sovereign, entered 
into arrangements with Lord Minto, the go¬ 
vernor-general, for a plan of co-operation and 
mutual aid.* This circumstance was sup¬ 
posed to deter the Persian shah, and obstruct 
the French government. The Hon. Mount- 
stuart Elphinstone negotiated with ability and 
frankness the treaties which bound the two 
governments. 

When the Russians revealed their designs 
upon Central Asia, directing an army against 
Khiva and Bokhara, and successfully intrigu¬ 
ing with Persia and the Affghan chiefs, the 
British sent an expedition to Cabul, which, 
although successful, experienced terrible dis¬ 
asters at the close of 1841, which were 
avenged in 1842 by another and more for¬ 
midable army. 

Herat is situated in the north-west, in the 
midst of a fertile district, and is a considerable 
emporium. The town is fortified strongly, 
and has been frequently held against the 
Persians with very inferior forces. It has 
been the policy of Persia to gain this city, 
in order to improve their position in reference 
to the British power in India, and to facilitate 
their long cherished designs on Candahar. 
These views of the Persians have been en¬ 
couraged by Russia, that she might through 
them, menace British India. In 1832 a series 
of intrigues were commenced by the Russian 
government, which were avowed by the Rus¬ 
sian, agents at Teheran to have for their object 
the conquest of Affghanistan by Persia, with 
the ulterior hope of facilitating a Mohammedan 
revolt in India. The Persian government 
simultaneously prosecuted a war against Herat 
with the same design. The policy of the 
British government on that occasion was timid 
and vacillating. Mr. M'Neill, the English 
envoy, and Lord Palmerston, the foreign 
minister, moved by a desire for peace, pro¬ 
crastinated when none but a daring and a 
dashing policy could be of any avail. The 
result of this cause, so usual with the English 
ministers since the reform bill, was the em- 
boldenment of the Persian potentate and the 
Russian agents, and an ultimate expense of 
blood and treasure to England, which a prompt 
keen policy would have certainly averted. 
Never in history were faithlessness and 
duplicity more disgracefully displayed than 
by the Russian government and the Czar 
Nicholas on that occasion. While that go¬ 
vernment was solemnly disavowing to Lord 
Durham at St. Petersburg all intention of en¬ 
couraging the aggressions of Persia against 
* Treaties. 


Herat, Russian agents and high officials were 
promising that power military co-operation, 
and affording them aid in money. The tame¬ 
ness of the English, and their inexpertness to 
fathom oriental character, were themes of 
derision and humiliating caricature at Tehe¬ 
ran, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. Since that 
time the city of Herat and the district around 
it have been of deeper interest than ever to 
British politicians. An independence has 
been guaranteed to Herat, by a very imper¬ 
fect treaty, in which Colonel Sheil, our agent, 
either acted very foolishly, or followed very 
foolish instructions. A determination that 
Herat shall not be occupied by the Persians 
has since become a more fixed policy of the 
'English, and they have even lately demon¬ 
strated this purpose by arms in a manner to 
impress the lesson upon the Persian govern¬ 
ment and people. The policy of the English 
court and cabinet, and the spirit and deport¬ 
ment of the English minister, who had the 
chief conduct of affairs on both the occasions 
when England had by military demonstration 
to save Herat, has been admirably expressed 
in the following words :—“ Fully alive to our 
interests in the East,' and suspicious from the 
origin of the designs of Russia, our cabinet 
seems somewhat liable to the imputation of 
having exceeded the common bounds of 
patience and of forbearance to a degree 
scarcely compatible with national dignity. 
An anxious desire to avoid collision, a ner¬ 
vous apprehension of war, are the leading 
features of almost every despatch from the 
Foreign-office. Praiseworthy in the begin¬ 
ning, this feeling predominates over so long a 
period of time, as to become irksome and dis¬ 
gusting to the reader,—fully conscious of the 
futility of perseverance in a course which had 
obviously failed in its object, and seemed cal¬ 
culated to promote the very measures it was 
meant to deprecate. Nevertheless, it must be 
acknowledged, in reference to the Foreign- 
office, that when every art of conciliation had 
been fairly exhausted, the energetic measures 
resorted to were skilfully contrived, and man¬ 
fully put in practice; nor is Lord Palmerston 
open to the accusation of having proceeded 
from the extreme of indolent forbearance to 
the opposite extreme of insolent menace or a 
hasty resolution to resist. Consistent through¬ 
out in his desire to obtain his object by per¬ 
suasion, he resorts to a demonstration of force 
with professed reluctance, yet with a deter¬ 
mination to assume all the responsibility of 
his actions.” * French mediation induced 
the English to accept, in 1857, less favourable 
terms than they had a right to impose. 

* Analysis of the Diplomatic Correspondence concern¬ 
ing Herat. 




CnAr. XII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


BELOOCHISTAN. 

Neither by the character of the country, 
nor the number of its people, does this region 
require an extended notice. In 1839 its capital 
was stormed by the British, and throughout 
the war with the ameers of Scinde, and 
during the subsequent settlement of that 
province, the Beloochees kept up. a harassing 
frontier warfare. Several of the hill tribes 
along the Scinde and Punjaub frontier have 
been brought under British authority, which 
is now enforced along that mountain boundary 
of Beloochistan. 

The region receiving this designation is 
extensive, being equal in area to that of the 
whole of the British Isles. On the north it 
is bounded by Seistan and Affglianistan along 
a line of frontier more than three hundred 
miles inland from the sea boundary, which 
stretches from Persia in the west to the basin 
of the Indus on the east. On the western 
boundary are the Persian provinces of Parisian 
and Kerman; on the east the British provinces 
of Scinde and the Punjaub. 

The central and northern portions of the 
country are for the most part desert; the 
southern, called Mekran, is more fertile, but 
the heat is excessive, parching up the soil of 
the country. In the highlands, especially of 
the west, there are four seasons, similar to 
those of Europe, but warmer, except for a 
short time in winter, and at considerable 
elevations. 

The products of Beloochistan are much 
more valuable than is generally supposed, for, 
as if by common consent, most writers of 
geography represent the country as little 
better than a desert. Hamilton declares 
that an army of twenty-five thousand men 
could nowhere be supported. The sandy 
soil, mixed with pebbles, stimulates produc¬ 
tion, a circumstance well known to cultivators 
in the west of Ireland, where the corn crops 
thrive better when the stones are left in con¬ 
siderable proportions amongst the productive 
soil. In Beloochistan fine crops of wheat 
and other grain are grown on stony lands, 
the personal labour of the cultivator in 
breaking up the soil having an effect similar 
to that of the spade husbandry of western 
Ireland. 

The country is almost destitute of water, 
which is the chief impediment to successful 
farming. Nevertheless, “flocks of sheep and 
herds of cattle are numerous in every part of 
the country.” * There are other domestic 
animals of great value, such as horses, mules, 
asses, camels, dromedaries, buffaloes, goats, 
dogs, cats, and several varieties of fowl, such 
as the common hen, and pigeons. 

* Pottinger 


Wild animals are of numerous species, if 
not of great numbers of each species. There 
are of quadrupeds lions, tigers, leopards, 
hyenas, wolves, jackals, tiger cats, dogs, foxes, 
hares, mongooses, mountain goats, antelopes, 
elks, red and mouse deer, asses, &c. Of 
birds there are eagles, kites, vultures, mag¬ 
pies, crows, hawks, flamingoes, herons, bus¬ 
tards, floricans, rock pigeons, lapwings, plo¬ 
vers, snipes, quails. There are also wild 
geese, ducks, and turkeys—birds which the 
Beloochees do not possess in a tame state. 
There are few species of small birds in either 
Asia or Europe which may not be found 
somewhere within the limits of Beloochistan. 
Reptile life is not active there, although 
some species exist in small numbers. On 
the sea-coast fish is found, but the Beloochees 
seem to prefer it dried or salted, for they 
seldom use it except in these forms even at 
moderate distances from the coasts. 

In most works on Indian commerce the 
exports from Beloochistan are ignored, while 
India is represented as sending thither many 
important articles—such as iron, tin, lead, 
steel, copper, indigo, betel-nut, cochineal, 
sugar, spices, silks, gold cloth, chintzes, coarse 
woollen, and jewellery. The Beloochees, in 
exchange for these valuable commodities, 
export the-staple-productions of their country. 
Hares, camels, asses, dogs, buffaloes, sheep, 
black cattle, and other animals, are sent 
into India, and also wheat and barley. 
Besides these there are various mineral pro¬ 
ductions which are exported from Beloo¬ 
chistan, such as rock-salt,—the red aperient 
salt,—-which is found in the hills between 
Kelat and Cutch Gundava; also alum and 
sulphur. White and grey marble are taken 
from the rock to the westward of Noosh- 
beg. Antimony, brimstone, saltpetre, and 
sal-ammoniac, are sent into India. Various 
mineral salts are sent by sea to the nearest 
ports in the Arabian Gulf. Even the com¬ 
modities for which Beloochistan is represented 
by so many writers as being indebted to India 
—iron, copper, tin, and lead—are found in 
her own hills, and gold and silver in several 
places. Cheese and ghee are bought by the 
Hindoos in the Beloochistan lowlands, and 
coai’se blankets, carpets, and felts, are bought 
there by the Hindoo traders to send to distant 
places. 

The religion of the whole people is Mo¬ 
hammedan, although among some of the hill 
tribes there are pagan rites and observances. 
They are generally fierce fanatics. The 
people are not of one race. The Beloochees 
most prevail on the western side, and their 
language is peculiar to themselves. On the 
eastern side the Brahooees, who also receive 

N N 


VOL. I 










274 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


the generic appellation of Beloochees, are the 
most prevalent. 

Major-general Jacob, on the Scinde frontier, 
has at once awed and reconciled various tribes 
of the Brahooees; and those whom the firm¬ 
ness and policy of Sir John and Sir Henry 
Lawrence have quieted on the lower part of 
the Punjaub frontiers, and whom they call 
Beloochees (to distinguish them from the 
Affghan borderers), are of the same race. 
Describing the Punjaub frontier of Beloochi- 
stan, Sir Henry Lawrence thus writes:— 
“ Lawless Belooch tribes cluster thick in the 
hills opposite Dera Ghazee Khan. In the 
Sunghur division of this district the Kusranees 
reappear, but the most powerful tribe are the 
Bozdars. Under the Sikh rule the fort of 
Mungrota was erected to check their depre¬ 
dations. Sawun Mull and General Ventura 
were obliged to purchase peace from them. 
Hurrund is infested by Ghoorchanees: one 
of them having been insulted by a Hindoo 
kardar of Sawun Mull, the whole body be- 
sieged the official’s house, and murdered him. 
After that the government built a fort there. 
South of Dera Ghazee Khan, the Boogties 
and Murrees carried their arms up to the very 
walls of Rajhan. The desolate state of the 
country in that vicinity is chiefly attributable 
to their depredations. Since annexation, 
however, they have been partially awed by 
the British force, and partly conciliated by 
Mr. Oortlandtjthe deputy-commissioner of Dera 
Ghazee Khan. But as thieves they are still 
daring and expert. They are favoured not 
only by the mountain defiles, but also by the 
hill-skirts, which have been already described 
as swampy, and overgrown by sedge and 
brushwood. But it is hoped that order may 
be introduced by police organization, by the 
location of an European officer at Mithunkote, 
and by concert with the Scinde authorities. 
The country inhabited by these Belooch tribes 
closely resembles that described by Sir Charles 
Napier in his Trukkee campaign. Indeed, 
that locality cannot be more than fifty miles 
from Rajhan, and the tribes which the Scinde 
horse hold in check are brethren of those that 
occupy the Dera Ghazee Khan border.” 

Of late years considerable attention has 
been paid to the languages of Beloochistan. 
That of the Brahooees is of Sanscrit origin, 
resembling the Punjaubee. Although the 
Beloochees proper are supposed to have 
sprung from the Seljukian Turks, but little 
progress has been made in the study of their 
language. It possesses no literature, and 
might be described as unwritten, had not the 
Serampore missionaries translated into it por¬ 
tions of the Scriptures. From specimens of 
the Lord’s Prayer examined by these reve- 


[Ch^vp. XII. 

rend persons very few words could be selected 
which had any Sanscrit affinity. 

The capital is Kelat ( killat , the fortress), 
which is situated in latitude 29° 8' north, and 
longitude 65° 60' east. This city has a very 
small population, scarcely exceeding twenty 
thousand. The site is elevated, overlooking 
a fertile and .beautiful valley, about eight 
miles long, and two and a half broad. This 
valley is well cultivated, its entire extent 
being laid out in gardens. Although the 
name of the city means “the fortress,” the 
defences are utterly contemptible. The king’s 
palace is the citadel, the position of which i3 
strong, affords good cover for musketeers, and 
would prove with a brave garrison very de¬ 
fensible in an assault, but it could offer no 
resistance to European guns. Small as the 
population is, it is composed of various na¬ 
tionalities ; Beloochees and Brahooees are the 
most numerous, but Hindoos, Affghans, Pun- 
jaubees, Dehwas, and Rajpoots, also have each 
a proportion somewhat considerable. 

Cutch Gundava is a large division of 
Beloochistan, situated between the twenty- 
seventh and twenty-ninth degree of north 
latitude. It is bounded on the north by 
Servistan; on the south, by Scinde proper : 
to the west it is limited by the Brahooick 
Mountains; and to the east it is separated 
from the river Indus by a desert. The length 
of the country from north to south is a hun¬ 
dred and twenty miles. The plain contains 
many villages, but the only town of any im¬ 
portance is Gundava, although Dudar, Bhag, 
and Sheree each contain from a thousand to 
fifteen hundred houses. The people of this dis - 
trict are chiefly Jats, but many Hindoos mingle 
among them. The Jats have traces in their 
person, language, and manner, of a Hindoo 
origin, yet their religion has for ages ceased 
to be Brahminical. The soil is loamy, and 
yields good cereal crops, and nourishes large 
fields of vegetables. It is remarkable that 
rice will not grow anywhere in this extensive 
district. The climate is peculiar, by the pre¬ 
valence of a simoom, which blows during the 
hot months, when few Europeans could in¬ 
habit the country, and the natives suffer from 
pestilence. 

The Beloochees are very patriotic, and 
jealous of any infraction of their territorial 
limits. Their hostility to the British during 
1839, and throughout the war with the 
ameers of Scinde, was very decided, and 
their bearing valiant. They now seem to be 
convinced that the near neighbourhood of the 
British is a guarantee for their prosperity; 
and the policy pursued on their borders by 
Sir Charles Napier, Major-general Jacob, Sir 
Henry and Sir John Lawrence, has divested 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


275 


Chap. XII. J 

tliem, to all appearance, of every vestige of 
their former animosity. Beloochee troops are 
enlisted in the service of the Honourable East 
India Company. During the war with Persia, 
under Lieutenant-general Outram, they be¬ 
haved gallantly, and also served well, and 
displayed a hearty loyalty during the sepoy 
revolt of 1857—8. The country is not one 
likely to tempt the cupidity of the possessors 
of India, whatever power might rule in that 
rich realm; but its possession by the British, 
or the active sympathy of its people with 
them, would be regarded very jealously by 
Persia, to which power it might prove seri¬ 
ously injurious in case of war with England. 

PERSIA. 

This is the last country it falls within the 
province of this work to notice as one which 
has been made by the British a theatre of 
war during their career of arms in the East. 
It cannot but strike the student of history as 
remarkable, that, taking Calcutta as the centre, 
the sword of England has swept around the 
Asiatic world. From the eastern sea limits 
of China to the shores of the Persian Gulf 
and the Red Sea the stroke of battle has been 
dealt by her victorious arm. Around the 
confines of India, from east to west, from the 
headlands of the Indo-Chinese peninsula 
through Bhotia, Nepaul, the frontiers of 
Thibet, Affghanistan, Beloochistan, even to 
Mohammerah, the ensign of England has 
fluttered in the breeze, the bugle of her light 
infantry has echoed through a thousand hills, 
and the wild horsemen of her Indian empire 
swept a thousand plains. In vain have 
mighty hosts mustered, and the grandest 
phalanxes of war been presented against 
her—they were shattered by the thunder of 
her artillery, and the flash of her steel, as the 
trees of the forest broken by the lightning 
storm. The gorgeous city has opened its 
gates to her viceroys; the desolate plain has 
been swept by her cohorts, as by the wind 
of the Sahara; the fertile valley has offered 
to her its teeming riches as a tribute; the 
mountain fastness has been penetrated by her 
resistless soldiery; and the flag which has so 
long floated over every sea is now the banner 
of invincibility- and renown over the fairest 
realms of the Asiatic world. Never have the 
stories of conquest been so picturesque, the 
events of battle so varied^ subjugated races 
bowing to a single sceptre-so numerous, or the 
moral ascendancy and prestige of victors so 
complete. When Europe heaved with the throes 
of revolution, and thrones were shaken, until 
their occupants fell from the pinnacle of their 
glory, or thrones and monarchs perished in a 
common overthrow,—when the peoples of con¬ 


tinental Europe shrunk, abashed and broken, 
before the terrible career of the mightiest mili¬ 
tary genius born out of the British Isles,—Eng¬ 
land founded a new empire in the East, as well 
as chained upon the wildest rock in the ocean 
the conqueror and despot of the West; and 
beyond the range of realm over which her 
sceptre is swayed its shadows fall, and its 
authority and power are feared. Persia, 
one of the greatest empires of antiquity, has 
again and again witnessed the war-ships of 
England in her waters, and seen “ the red 
soldiers” of England on her shores, and 
amongst the most recent and glorious com¬ 
bats of English troops have been those fought 
upon- the soil of Iran. These circumstances, 
the relations of Persia to Russia, Turkey, and 
our Indian empire, and the importance her 
relations to the first two powers gives to her 
proximity to India, must attract the atten¬ 
tion of all intelligent Englishmen to her posi¬ 
tion, resources, and policy. 

The boundaries of Persia have fluctuated 
probably as frequently as those of any country 
in the world. In her turn she has subju¬ 
gated nations and been subjugated. At a 
very early period we find her a great king¬ 
dom, when the Jewish prophets record her 
grandeur and her glory. It was in the days 
of Cyrus that she reached the acme of her 
warlike- splendour, although her riches and 
the- numbers of her armies were more re¬ 
markable at a later period, when she sum¬ 
moned the resources of her vassal nations to 
the wars against Greece, in which her bar¬ 
baric strength was broken by Grecian skill 
and heroism. Greek, Parthian, Roman. 
Saracen, Tartar, and Affglian, have harried 
and devastated her, yet she still exists in 
considerable power and affluence for a modern 
Asiatic kingdom. The present inhabitants 
of Persia dwell upon the same territory which 
was regarded as the parent and central land 
of the ancient Persian empire, although only 
a small portion of that country was occupied 
by the race of shepherds from which the 
Persian conquerors sprung.* Ancient Per¬ 
sia was bounded on the north by the Great 
Desert and the Caspian Sea; on the south, 
by the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean; 
on the east, by the rivers Indus and Oxus ; 
and on the west, by the Euphrates and Media. 
Modern Persia lies within limits which have 
been shorn of various provinces which the 
old empire contained. The Russians have 
encroached upon its northern limits, robbing 
it of large and famous provinces. The area 
over which the shah now reigns is supposed 
to comprise five hundred thousand square 
miles, and extends about seven hundred miles 
* Herodotus, ix. p. 122; Plato, the Laws, iii. c. 12. 










276 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XII. 


from north to south, following the meridian 
of 54° east, or from the Bay of Astrabad, on 
the Caspian, to the south of Laristan, on the 
Persian Gulf; and eight hundred and fifty 
miles from east to west, following the parallel 
of 34° north, a line passing about equi-distant 
from Teheran and Ispahan. 

The physical characteristics of the country 
are interesting to Great Britain in a political 
point of view, as the designs of Russia upon 
that country, and, through her, upon India, 
open up discussions which are important as 
to the resources of Persia, and the prac¬ 
ticability of attacking it from India and the 
Persian Gulf. 

A large area of Persia consists of a plateau, 
varying in height from three to four thousand 
feet above the level of the sea. From this 
vast plain chains of mountains rise, amidst 
which are sterile valleys, salt lakes, and salt 
and sand deserts. Elbruz is the chief moun¬ 
tain range, which runs parallel to the Caspian. 
Between this range and the great inland sea 
lies one of the loveliest countries in the world 
as to scenery and luxuriance of vegetation, 
but swampy and miasmatic. In the province 
of Khuzistan. in consequence of the numerous 
streams flowing to the Shat-el-Arab, or the 
Tigris, the country is beautiful and luxuriant, 
yielding the fruits both of Europe and the 
tropics. This region is one of those magnifi¬ 
cent flower lands which are ftmnd in so many 
parts of Asia. It is almost, if not quite, as 
famed for its roses as Cashmere, and is more 
famed for its tulips than any other place in 
Asia. Violets, jasmines, pinks, ranunculuses, 
hyacinths, and anemones, bloom in the gar¬ 
dens, and even in the fields. 

The general aspect of the country is barren 
and waste, and has always been so, notwith¬ 
standing the glowing language of Persian 
song and fable as to its beauties. Some por¬ 
tions of the country deserve even those eulo¬ 
gies for their riches and beauty. 

The mineral resources of the country in 
some of its most rocky and desert districts is 
alleged by mineralogists and geologists to be 
vast, but no efforts are made to obtain those 
treasures, except in a few places, and the 
jealousy of both the people and the govern¬ 
ment deter European enterprise. Some cou¬ 
rageous and scientific Frenchmen have made 
attempts to work mines with a success which 
promised much, but the religion, laws, go¬ 
vernment, and habits of the people, proved 
insurmountable barriers to success. 

“ The valleys of the centre provinces of 
Persia abound with all the rarest and most 
valuable vegetable productions, and might be 
cultivated to any extent. The pasture grounds 
of that country are not surpassed by any in 


the world. Trees are seldom found, except 
near the towns or villages, but the luxuriance 
with which they grow, wherever planted, 
shows that the climate is quite congenial to 
them.” * 

The animals are as various as the cha¬ 
racteristics of the country. On the rich 
pasture lands superior cattle and sheep are 
to be seen in large herds and flocks; in 
the sandy and rocky districts the animals 
common to similar Asiatic regions are found. 
The dogs of Persia, like those of Affghani- 
stan, are remarkable for strength, beauty, and 
docility. Horses are the finest animals of 
Persia; they are of various breeds—some 
renowned for their strength, others for fleet¬ 
ness and beauty. For military purposes they 
are especially well adapted. 

Much depends as to either vegetable or 
animal life in Persia upon the supply of 
water. Persia is deficient in rivers. The 
Tigris and the Euphrates are by some called 
Persian rivers; these are navigable, and the 
streams which feed them irrigate the lands 
through which they flow. The Karoon, in 
Khuzistan, the Arras, or Araxes, in Ader- 
bijan, and the Heirmund, which flows through 
the province of Seistan, are the largest rivers 
within the proper boundaries of Persia. 

The climate of course influences the cha¬ 
racter of the productions, and is itself influ¬ 
enced by the qualities of the soil. Elevation 
determines quite as much as latitude the 
variety of climate in Persia. Sir John Mal¬ 
colm pronounced it healthy; more modern 
travellers do not give quite so favourable an 
account of it, but admit that it is on the 
whole favourable to health. 

The sea boundaries of the empire are not 
made available for an extensive commerce, or 
the acquisition of maritime power. The 
Persian Gulf stretches from the Straits of 
Ormuz six hundred miles, in a direction 
north-west. Its breadth varies from a hun¬ 
dred miles to more than twice that distance, 
but at the narrowest portions of the entrance 
is not more than twenty-five miles. It is 
remarkable for the great pearl fishery, which 
employs about thirty thousand persons. At 
the entrance of the gulf is the Island of 
Ormuz, situated about ten miles from the 
Persian coast. This island was the depot of 
the Portuguese for their oriental trade. It 
seems to have been a place of reputed com¬ 
mercial wealth in remote times; hence the 
allusion of Milton :— 

“ The wealth of Ormuz or of Ind, 

Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand, 
Showers on her kings barbaric gold and pearls.” 


* Sir John Malcolm. 





Chau. XTI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


27' 


The land on both sides of the Persian Gulf 
presents a most dreary appearance, precipitous 
cliffs of brownish grey colour rising high from 
the edge of the water, or a desolate waste 
stretching away far as the eye can see. The 
shores resemble those of the Red Sea. The 
coasts are studded with rocky islands. 

The operations of the British forces in 
1857 gives a particular interest to this 
portion of Persia, the commercial places, 
Bushire and Mohammerah, having been occu¬ 
pied by our troops. Bushire is regarded by 
the Persians as of great importance, hut its 
defences were found by our troops incon¬ 
siderable. Captain G. H. Hunt, of the 78th 
Highlanders, says of it, that as a commercial 
town it has been oftener attacked than any 
other in the world. A British resident repre¬ 
sents his country there. The town is situated 
on a sandy spit, the sea washing two faces, 
and a swampy creek a third. From the har¬ 
bour it appears well built, but it is a wretched 
place, filthy, and irregularly constructed. 
“ The Armenian church within its walls is 
worth a visit, as also the bazaar, and a very 
extraordinary water reservoir opposite to the 
residency. The Hablali Peak, and ranges of 
hills in the background, are very abrupt and 
bold, the higher ridges at this season capped 
with snow. The climate is most delightful, 
but the nights are bitterly cold.” * 

In the British campaign of 1857 an expe¬ 
dition was made from Bushire into the interior 
as far as Brasjore, a distance of about fifty 
miles. “ Part of the road traversed lay 
round the head of the Bushire creek, and 
was alternately hard and loose sand and reedy 
swamp, a small fortified tower near some 
walls and a few date-trees being the only 
objects of interest passed upon the march.” -j- 
In that part of the country which lies between 
Bushire and Char-kota sand-storms are com¬ 
mon, resembling the shimauls of Aden, which 
darken the air with clouds of light sand. 
The cold nights also severely try the few 
travellers who encounter them, and severely 
tested the endurance of the British cam¬ 
paigners. From Char-kota to Brasjore the 
country a little improves, as there are occa¬ 
sional patches of date and palm-trees, and a 
few cultivated spots, where cereal crops are 
gathered. The mountain scenery is noble, 
but the lowlands are desert and sandy with 
rare exceptions. 

Mohammerah is a town of some importance 
for Persia, situated at the junction of the 
Karoon River with the Shat-el-Arab. This 
was one of the places upon which the 
arms of the British were directed in the 
Persian war of 1857. The branch of the 
* Captain Hunt. f Townsend. 


Euphrates known as the Shat-el-Arab flows 
through a country in the neighbourhood of 
Mohammerah which is peculiarly dreary. 
The banks are flat and swampy; date groves 
and miserable villages, although frequently 
occurring, do not relieve the general mono¬ 
tony. The water is muddy, and rolls its 
gloomy current heavily along. The banks 
are unhealthy, the malaria for some portions 
of the year being very fatal, yet a miserable 
population finds subsistence, and preserves 
itself: the delicate and weak die off. The 
strong only surviving, causes the personal 
appearance of the people to be better than 
that of most of the neighbouring inland 
tribes, notwithstanding the wretchedness of 
their abodes and their general destitution. 
The local influences there are deadly to 
Europeans. 

The town of Mohammerah is a collection 
of wretched huts and buildings of mud, yet it 
is the depot for merchandise to or from India 
for the upper Persian provinces, for Bussorah 
and Bagdad. The governor’s house is a good 
building, and the garden attached to it beau¬ 
tiful. A bazaar of very great extent for the 
place, but badly preserved, was well stocked 
with commodities when the British forces 
w T ere there. 

Akwaz is situated one hundred miles from 
Mohammerah up the Karoon River. The 
scenery is dreary and monotonous; plains of 
sand, with occasional patches of coarse grass, 
stretch away in seemingly boundless expanse. 
On the banks, by the water’s edge, jungle 
grows thickly in many places, and is the 
haunt of the lion and other beasts of prey. 
Flocks of wild duck and teal abound. At 
Kootul-el-Abd the river bends gracefully, 
and its banks are richer and softer, the 
willow growing by the water, and the poplar 
extending some distance inland. Game of 
various lands is plentiful in that neighbour¬ 
hood. 

The town is nearly surrounded by low sand¬ 
hills, and the plain is well covered with 
bushes. The place is even more miserable 
than Mohammerah: it is inhabited by a 
fine tribe of Arabs. The cultivation of the 
neighbourhood is very limited and imperfect, 
and almost the only pleasant spot is a pretty 
wooded island in the river. A reef of rocks 
impedes the navigation below the town, 
creating dangerous rapids. On this reef are 
the ruins of a bridge. “ A few small arches 
still remaining are of very singular construc¬ 
tion, the bricks used being exceedingly small 
and hard, and shining like porcelain. Tradi¬ 
tion dates this back to Alexander the Great. 
The rapids once passed, the navigation of the 
river is unimpeded, and with moderately deep 










278 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chai*. XII. 


water up to Shuster, a city of some import¬ 
ance.” * Commander Selby, of the Indian 
navy, made some years ago a survey of the 
Karoon from Mohammerah to the rapids of 
Akwaz. The Bactdyari Mountains, one hun¬ 
dred miles distant, covered with perpetual 
snow, afford some relief in the far distance as 
the eye roams over the dark desert. 

The Persian Gulf must, from its posi¬ 
tion, he the scene of war in a conflict 
between India and Persia; and it is of the 
utmost importance that surveys be repeated, 
and an accurate knowledge maintained of the 
wandering tribes on its shores. A quarter 
of a century ago, and even less, the gulf was 
infested by pirates, who were effectually dis¬ 
persed by the Indian navy. The execution of 
the task engendered hostility in the minds of 
the natives, f which has never been removed, 
and which, although much mitigated by the 
moderation of the British during the late ope¬ 
rations in the gulf, yet is far from being re¬ 
moved, and must be taken into account in 
any future demonstration. One of the chief 
hindrances to British influence has been the 
fierce fanaticism of the Mohammedans on 
both shores, but, according to the evidence of 
very high authorities, prejudices of this kind 
are greatly giving way. J From other as 
well as political considerations attention to 
the waters and shores of this gulf is important 
to English interests. “ Commerce, the most 
powerful link to connect nations of widely 
different character, is now carried on without 
hindrance, the Persian Gulf is yearly assum¬ 
ing a more important character with reference 
to European politics, and the gulf is probably 
destined to become the highway between 
India and London.” § The following is as 
brief and accurate a general description as 
for popular purposes could be presented to 
the reader; it is written by a naval officer, 
who, from the love of scientific research, has 
spent much time in exploring these waters :— 
“ The Persian Gulf is entered by a narrow 
strait, called by the Arabs ‘ the Lion’s Mouth,’ 
where from either side the opposite coast is 
visible. After passing these, the shores of 
Persia and Arabia receding, we find ourselves 
in a great inland sea, up to the head of which 
the distance is five hundred miles ; its general 
width is a hundred and twenty miles. This, 
unlike the Red Sea, which is in a deep narrow 
bed, is shallow. The only deep part of the 
gulf is at the entrance, and here there is a 

* Outram and Havelock's Persian Campaign. 

f Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. 

f Papers of the Bombay Geographical Society, Feb¬ 
ruary, 1856. 

$ Lieutenant Charles G. Constable, of the Indian 
navy. 


hundred fathoms of water; but this depth is 
only found close to the rocks of Cape Moo- 
sendom—it becomes less deep as you go out 
from the cape. Within the gulf fifty fathoms 
is about the deepest water, and the upper 
portion is much shoaler. A peculiar feature 
of the gulf is that there is scarcely a good 
harbour in it. The Persian coast is often 
mountainous; the opposite, or Arabian coast, 
is mostly a low sandy desert shore. The 
former coast is the one most navigated, and is 
the safer of the two. The great gulf or estuary 
outside the straits, leaving the Meknar coast 
on the north, and the shores of Oman on the 
south, is called the Gulf of Oman ; it is, most 
strictly speaking, part of the Persian Gulf.” * 
“ On this coast, as well as on the south-east 
coast of Arabia, it may be taken as a rule— 
that wherever the coast is low the sea is 
shallow, and where the coast is high the sea 
is deep.”f The depth of the gulf and of 
the Euphrates is perpetually changing, from 
causes thus described :—“ This phenomenon is 
attributable to the immense volume of mud and 
sand, carried down by the Euphrates and its 
associated streams, being deposited in so land¬ 
locked a body of water as the Persian Gulf, 
in which, aided by the inset of the tide, the 
sediment is poured back instead of being 
swept out by a boisterous open sea.” | 

The Island of Karrack will, in all hostile 
expeditions of the navy of Bombay, be used 
as a depot. There is an admirable survey of 
this island, made on the scale of six inches 
and a half to a mile, upon which every nullah 
and the large fissures of the rocks may be 
traced. This survey was made by Mr. An¬ 
derson, the officer who, with Mr. Agnew, was 
murdered at Mooltan by the soldiery of 
Moolraj. 

Although the shores of the gulf are now 
so desolate, they were once studded by great 
cities, the remains of which may still be 
observed. One of the most famous ports of 
antiquity was Gerrha. The ruins of this city 
may still be seen at the recess of a narrow 
bay near the Island of Bahreyn. Within a 
few miles of Bushire extensive ruins attest 
that a city once stood there. Tahrie, on the 
Persian coast, is supposed by some antiquaries 
to be the ruins of Siraf. There are several 
other traces of ancient grandeur of more or 
less interest on the coasts, and some a short 
way inland, where now all is desolation. 

* Memoir relative to the Hydrography of the Persian 

t Geography of the Coast of Arabia between Aden 
and Muskat. Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic 
Society, vol. iii. 

t Sir Roderick Murchison, at the sitting of the Royal 
Geographical Society, 1851. 




Chap XII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


The political importance to England of 
preserving the prestige of her power in the 
Persian Gulf was probably never better ex¬ 
pressed than by Sir William Fenwick Wil¬ 
liams, Bart, (the hero of Kars), in a speech 
delivered in the House of Commons, when the 
policy of the late Persian war was under dis¬ 
cussion :—“ For ten years he had been em¬ 
ployed in a public capacity in various parts 
of the East. He was engaged for five years 
in negotiations at Erzeroum relative to its 
affairs with Turkey, and for five years subse¬ 
quently he travelled in all parts of the Persian 
territory. He had therefore many opportu¬ 
nities of becoming acquainted with the opi¬ 
nions of almost all classes of the people, and 
he could assure the house that, in his com¬ 
munications with Persian princes, Turkish 
dignitaries, and the peasantry of the country, 
the relative position of Russia and England 
was the constant theme of conversation among 
them. They weighed the military power of 
ltussia with the naval power of England, and 
they talked almost continually of the possi¬ 
bility of Russia going to India. That idea 
was also inculcated on the minds of the people 
by every Russian agent who visited their ter¬ 
ritory, and it was said by those emissaries 
that Russia would establish herself in India 
step by step, and that one of those steps 
would be the capture of Herat. That being 
the case, he thought the house might safely 
affirm the policy of the war with Persia. 
When they looked at the position of Herat, 
they coidd have no doubt that that was the 
direction in which the finger of Russia 
pointed; and that being so, he contended 
that the results of the war with Persia proved 
that it was the very best move that England 
ever made. He said, then, that as the finger 
of Russia was seen at Herat, so the finger of 
England had been seen at Mohammerah, and 
for centuries to come we should see the good 
effects of the invasion of Persia.” 

Having described the general character of 
the country and its coasts, it is only necessary 
to state the provincial divisions and chief cities, 
a more minute account not being pertinent 
to the objects of this History. 


PROVINCES. CHIEF TOWNS. 

bars.Shiraz, Bushire. 

Laristan.Lar. 

Khuzistan.Shuster. 

Irak Ajemi .... Teheran, Ispahan, Ramadan, Casbin. 

Ardelan.Kermanshah, Senna. 

Azerbijan.Tabreez, Urumiah. 

Ghilan.Reshd. 

Mazunderan .... Saree. 

Astrabad.Astrabad.* 

Khorassan.Mushed, Yezd. 

Kerman.Kerman, Gombroon. 


* The Russians have pushed their frontier to tb : ° -dace. 


A i v 

The largest and most commercial cities are 
—Tabreez, thirty miles east of the Lake of 
Urumiah; Khoi, eighty miles north-west of 
Tabreez; Reshd and Balfroosh, on the 
southern shores of the Caspian; Yezd, occu¬ 
pying an oasis in the vast salt desert of 
Khorassan; Casbin, north-west of Teheran, 
surrounded by a vast extent of orchards and 
vineyards; Hamadan, at the foot of the 
snowy peak of Elwund, on the supposed site 
of the ancient Ecbatana; Kermanshah, on 
an affluent of the Tigris; Kerman, in the 
centre of the province of that name; and 
Mushed, towards the deserts of Turkistan. 
Yezd is one of the great entrepdts between 
Central and Western Asia, where the caravans 
from Cabul, Cashmere, Herat, and Bokhara 
are met by merchants from the west, and an 
immense interchange of commodities takes 
place. Shiraz, once so famous, is now a 
decayed city, largely in ruins, but derives 
interest from the tombs of its two natives— 
Sadi, the moral philosopher, and Hafiz, the 
lyric poet. 

The remarkable ancient sites are Perse- 
polis, on the plain of Merdusht, thirty-five 
miles north-east of Shiraz, a royal city of the 
Medo-Persian kings, of which there are 
stately vestiges; Pasargadse, built by Cyrus 
to commemorate his victory over the Medes, 
identified generally with ruins on the plain of 
Mourgaub, north-east of Persepolis; Ecba¬ 
tana, the old capital of the Medes, and the 
Achmetlia of the book of Ezra, now supposed 
to be represented by Hamadan, where the 
reputed sepulchre of Esther and Mordeeai is 
shown; Susa, the Shushan of the books of 
Esther and Daniel, an uncertain site, either 
at Shus, on the Kerrah, or at Susan, on the 
Karoon, in Khuzistan, at both of which there 
are the relics of a great city; and Rhages, 
connected with the captivity of the Jews, 
afterwards a capital of the Parthian kings, 
and the birthplace of Haroun-al-Reschid, 
now a heap of ruins, five miles south-east of 
Teheran. The modern Khuzistan is the 
ancient Susiana, and the Elam of Scripture. 
The Persis of the Greeks and Romans, and 
the Paras of the Old Testament, is now 
represented by the province of Fars. This 
is Persia proper, and the present is an obvious 
derivation from the ancient name, Paras or 
Pharas, abbreviated into Phars, or Fars. * 

The people of the kingdom or empire may 
be divided into two distinctive classes, one of 
which is fixed, residing in the cities, or culti¬ 
vating the soil of the more fertile provinces; 
the other comprises various wandering tribes, 
who reside in tents, and are often dangerous 
to the throne, yet also frequently its bravest 
* Rev. T. Milner. 























HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIX. 


280 


defenders. The first class are commonly 
called the Persians proper, but known in the 
East under the designation of Tanjiks. They 
have been termed the French of the East, 
from their vivacity and politeness, although 
probably the modern French are their infe¬ 
riors in the latter particular. The people of 
all tribes, but more especially the Persians 
proper, give to their country the name of 
Iran. The wandering tribes are called 
Illyotts* although a considerable number of 
these wild races, having taken to live in cities 
in later times, are distinguished by the name 
of Sher-nishin■ j- the wanderers choosing, 
in contradistinction, to call themselves Sahara- 
nishin. | 

The reigning family is one of the tribes 
which has adopted city life, and settled in 
Teheran and its neighbourhood; and it is 
upon the loyalty of these tribes, especially in 
the direction of the Russian frontier, that the 
monarch relies against the encroachments of 
that power. The erratic tribes comprise a 
population of about two millions and a half, 
and, while recognising the sovereignty of the 
shah, are governed by their own customs, 
and are under the immediate control of their 
own chiefs. The government of the shah is 
one of the purest despotisms in the world, the 
only form of government for which the people 
would have any respect. The administration 
is oppressive and unjust. 

The old capital is Ispahan, which is situ¬ 
ated in an extensive and fertile vale, renowned 
for its beauty. It was once populous, and its 
public buildings and delightful gardens were 
the theme of Persian song and story: it is 
now desolate, yet less than a century and 
a half ago it was a city of great opulence, and 
the seat of government. In the autumn of 
1715 an ambassador of Peter the Great of 
Russia visited Ispahan; an English gentleman 
happened to be in his suite, who recorded his 
impressions of the place, and published them 
in 1762. Although so many years elapsed 
between his visit and the publication of his 
book, it appears to be his impression that the 
Persian capital was, at the latter period, a 
place of eminence. He described the English 
and Dutch factories as prosperous, especially 
the former; and the English factory as situ¬ 
ated in the midst of the city, and separated 
from it by a wall. The following brief 
account of its site and condition, as it appeared 
at his visit, shows, when compared with the 
present ruined and depopulated condition of 
the same place, how rapidly an oriental, and 
especially a Persian city, may decay:— 

* “Families,” or “tribes.” 

t Dwellers in cities. 

J Dwellers in the field. 


“ Ispahan is situated nearly in thirty-two 
degrees north latitude, on a fruitful plain, 
in the province of Hierack, anciently the 
kingdom of the Parthians. About three or 
four English miles distant from the city, to 
the south, runs a high ridge of mountains 
from east to west. Shah Abbass the Great 
transferred the seat of the Persian govern¬ 
ment from Casbin to this place. Ispahan is 
plentifully supplied with water from the river 
Schenderoo, which runs between the city and 
the suburbs, keeping its course to the north. 
It rises near the city, and is fordable almost 
everywhere, unless during great rains, which 
seldom happen. After passing this place, its 
course is but short, for it soon loses itself in 
dry parched plains. Over the Schenderoo 
there are three stately stone bridges in sight 
of one another; but the one in the middle, 
betwixt the city and that part of the suburbs 
called Julpha, which terminates the spacious 
street Czar-bach, far exceeds any structure of 
that kind I ever saw. It is broad enough 
for two carriages and a horseman to pass 
abreast, and has galleries on each side, which 
are covered, for the convenience of people on 
foot; and watchmen are stationed at each end 
to prevent disorders. There are few houses 
in the town which have not their chauses, 
i.e., cisterns of water, conveyed in pipes from 
the river—a most salutary and refreshing 
circumstance in such a dry and sultry climate. 

“ The city is populous, and, as I have 
already observed, very extensive. As most of 
the inhabitants have their houses apart, sur¬ 
rounded with gardens, planted with fruit and 
other trees, at a distance it appears like a 
city in a forest, and affords a very agreeable 
prospect. The streets are generally very 
narrow and irregular, except that leading to 
the great bridge already mentioned. This 
noble street is very broad and straight, and 
near an English mile in length. On each 
side are the king’s palaces, courts of justice, 
and the academies for the education of youth, 
with two rows of tall chinar-trees, which 
afford a fine shade. These trees have a 
smooth whitish bark, and a broad leaf, like 
the plane-tree. At certain distances, there are 
fountains of water that play continually, 
round which are spread carpets; and thither 
the Persians resort to drink coffee, smoke 
tobacco, and hear news, which, I must con¬ 
fess, is very agreeable in hot weather. 

“ At Ispahan are many manufactories of 
silk and cotton, and a great many silkworms 
in the neighbourhood. As the consumption 
of silk is very considerable in this place, little 
of it is exported. The making carpets, how¬ 
ever, employs the greatest number of hands, 
for which the demand is great, as they are 



Chap. XII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


281 


preferable in quality, design, and colour, to 
any made elsewhere. 

“ The fields about the city are very fertile, 
and produce plentiful crops of excellent wheat 
and barley; but then they must all be watered, 
on account of the dryness of the soil, which 
is a work of labour and expense. Besides 
these, I saw no other grain. Provisions of 
all kinds are very dear at Ispahan, which is 
sufficiently apparent from the number of poor 
that go about the streets. Nothing, however, 
is so extravagantly high as firewood. 

“ The Roman Catholics have three convents 
in the city, viz., those of the Carmelites, 
Capuchins, and Augustins. The Jesuits and 
Dominicans have their separate convents in 
the suburbs of Julpha, which is inhabited by 
Armenians, who are allowed the free exercise 
of their religion. There is a considerable 
number of Jews in the city, who are either 
merchants or mechanics.” * 

The present capital is Teheran, in latitude 
35° 40' north, longitude 51° 30' east, built 
on a sterile plain, near the southern base of 
Elbruz. It is about four miles in circumfer¬ 
ence, and contains probably one hundred 
and fifty thousand persons; but the popula¬ 
tion fluctuates in the hot season, many of the 
citizens removing to cooler situations. In 
summer the heat of the place is intense. The 
country is naked and savage, presenting the 
wildest aspect of plain and mountain— 

“ Rough quarries, rocks, aad hills, whose heads toueh 
heaven.” 

The religion of the state, and of nearly the 
whole of the people, is Mohammedan. There 
are now but few of the Parsees (Gliebers, or 
fire-worshippers) remaining, after the exter¬ 
minating persecutions to which they have 
been exposed. Sofeeism, or scepticism, pre¬ 
vails very extensively; this system is suitable 
to the volatile Persians, and it is steadily dis¬ 
placing Mohammedanism: yet the Sofeeists 
enter into the spirit of the national religion so 
far as to espouse its persecutions, and its quar¬ 
rels with the rival sect of Mohammedanism 
professed by the Turks. 

The religious history of Persia is interest¬ 
ing. “ The primeval religion of Iran, if we 
may rely on the authorities adduced by 
Mohsan Fani, was that which Newton calls 
the oldest of all religions—a firm belief that 
one supreme God made the world by his 
power, and continually governed it by his 
providence; a pious fear, love, and adoration 
of him; a due reverence for parents and 
aged persons; a fraternal affection for the 
whole human species; and a compassionate 
tenderness even for the brute creation.”-j- 
* Bell. f Sir William Jones. 

VOL. I. 


The earliest religion of the people soon 
became corrupted there as elsewhere, and by 
the same processes. The works of nature 
became objects of awe, fear, veneration, and 
were also made types of good or evil ideas. 
The unseen world was peopled with heroes, 
demi-gods, and demons, who were worshipped 
either from fear or admiration, and with 
homage, relative or direct. Persia, indeed, 
or Iran, from the earliest times, seems to 
have been the great classic ground of oriental 
mythology and romance, which diverged and 
spread from thence with its roving tribes, the 
Pali and Pelasgi, &c., to almost every sur¬ 
rounding and distant country, both of the 
East and of the West. The fabled wars of the 
gods and giants, which pervade the Greek 
and Latin classics, most probably originated 
from the wars of their heroes, or ancient 
kings, with the dives , or rebellious demons, 
in which they were supposed, to be assisted 
by the peris, or fairies, the good demons 
and guardian angels of mankind; both 
acting under the control of the Supreme 
Being. 

The sacred books of Ezra, Nehemiah, 
and Esther depict the ancient power and 
splendour of the Persian court, and the 
absolute will of the monarchs at that early 
age. They also present a true account of 
the ethical and religious notions and character 
of the court and people. During the time of 
Esther and Mordecai, the monarch, and 
through him the court, were brought under 
the influence of the monotheism of revelation. 
Cyrus, the founder of this great empire, which 
included Babylon, Media, and Persia, was 
also much influenced by Jewish opinion, as 
the book of Daniel reveals. The religion of 
Zoroaster (fire or sun worship) described in a 
previous chapter, supplanted all other systems, 
and obtained an early and universal recogni¬ 
tion among the Persian tribes. “ That people 
rejects the use of temples, of altars, and of 
statues, and smiles at the folly of those nations 
who imagine that the gods are sprung from, 
or bear any affinity with, the human nature. 
The tops of the highest mountains are the 
places chosen for sacrifices. Hymns and 
prayers are the principal worship; the 
Supreme God, who fills the wide circle of 
heaven, is the object to whom they are 
addressed.” * 

At an early period Christianity was intro¬ 
duced by the Syrian Church, but was opposed 
by the Magi. The Nestorians, however, long 
maintained a position in Persia, and to this 
day some of them are to be found in the 
cities and hill countries. The near neigh¬ 
bourhood of Persia to Arabia brought her 
* Herodotus. 

o o 




2S2 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIII. 


early under the yoke of the Saracens, and 
the religion of Mohammed was established, as 
usual, by the sword. 

The moral character of the people is such 
as is formed by the Mohammedan religion 
everywhere; but while the Persians cherish 
its sanguinary doctrines, and are, as the 
followers of the Prophet elsewhere, opposed 
to all science which is not found in the Koran, 
the polite and volatile character of the people, 
and the influence of Sofeeism, cause the 
Mohammedan temper and tone to be less 
obvious. There is very little sincerity or 
truth in the Persians of this day, while their 
arrogance and self-esteem pass the bounds 
probably of all other people. “ The Persian 
character, throughout all its shades, has one 
predominating feature—an overweening vanity 
distinguishes the whole nation.” * The policy 
of the court is utterly faithless, as the British 
government has frequently experienced. 

The languages of Persia are various: 
Turkish, Arabic, and Pushtoo, are spoken by 
different tribes, according to their origin, but 
the Persian is the prevailing tongue. It has 
been called the Italian of Asia, because of its 
softness and fluency. It is the polite lan¬ 
guage of a large portion of Western, Central, 
and Southern Asia. Its antiquity is very 
great. Sir William Jones considered the 
ancient Persian to be identical with the 
Chaldee, or immediately derived from it. The 
Chevalier Bunsen regards the ancient Per¬ 
sian, or Iran, as the fount of the Indo- 
European family of languages. 

The literature of Persia is various and 
refined, the language being especially adapted 
to poetry and romance: much of the literature 
it contains is in these forms. 

The commerce of Persia is in a very low 
condition, and shows' symptoms of still further 
decay. The pearl fishery furnishes an article 
highly prized everywhere, but especially in 
the East. The caravans convey various ar¬ 


ticles of commerce to or from Russia, Turkey, 
Independent Tartary, Beloocliistan, Affghan- 
istan, and Cashmere. Trade, bv way of the 
Persian Gulf, is carried on with Kurrachee 
and Bombay, and, in a less degree, with the 
eastern ports of India and China. 

The Persians still retain some celebrity in 
the East for light and tasteful manufactures, 
such as jewellery, in which, however, they 
are inferior both to the Bengalese and Chi¬ 
nese ; sword blades, in which they are rivalled 
in India; pottery, which is much surpassed 
by the Chinese manufacturers; gold and silver 
brocade, in which the Chinese also excel 
them, as they do in plain silks. The Persians 
are famous for their manufacture of shawls, 
which are made from the products of Thibet 
and Cashmere, brought into Persia by the 
caravans. The Persian carpets have long 
maintained a merited celebrity. Mohair, 
known in Britain as a product of Asia Minor, 
and now brought into such extensive use in 
English manufactures, is derived in consider¬ 
able quantities from Persia. It is the woolly 
hair or fleece of the Angora goat (Capra 
Angorensis), which is a native of a small 
district; but the breed has extended to Persia, 
and the hair become an article of commerce 
for the Persian caravans. Horses, hare-skins, 
and horsehair are also articles of export. 

There is an exportation of s ilk to England, 
but it is very fluctuating, in some years 
being under a thousand bales, in others 
reaching four thousand, and occasionally six 
thousand. It arrives in small bales, or ballots, 
of seventy-five pounds net. Black lamb¬ 
skins are much valued in Persia, and, being 
abundant, are exported. Isinglass, obtained 
from the sturgeon fisheries of the Caspian 
Sea, is in high repute in Asia Minor, Turkey, 
Russia, and England. There are few coun¬ 
tries, of equal area and resources, for which 
commerce has done so much in increasing its 
opulence and civilization. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


THE GOVERNMENT OF THE 

A brief and popular exposS of the system of { 
government of British India is a desideratum. I 
Acts of parliament, and the archives of the 
India-House, reveal to the student the intri- ! 
cacies of the constitution of the company, its ! 
relation to the Board of Control, the regula- j 
tions which govern its civil and military 
services, the collection of its revenue, and the 
* Sir John Malcolm. 


BRITISH INDIAN EMPIRE. 

administration of its law and police. Digests 
of law, abstracts of parliamentary papers, 
and the acts of the governor-general and 
council of India have been published, but they 
are crude and dry, and therefore not adapted 
for popular perusal. This chapter will pre¬ 
sent such a general view of the subject, as 
will enable the reader to peruse, in future 
chapters, the history of Indian conquest, and 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST 


283 


Chap. XIII.] 

of the incorporation of Indian territory, with 
greater clearness, and also to enter into the 
political discussions of the day, popular and 
parliamentary, in reference to Indian topics. 
Aid will be afforded to the student of this His¬ 
tory by presenting some account of the forms 
of government which prevailed in times ante¬ 
cedent to the British dominion. By this means 
a comparative view can be taken of those 
forms, and the constitution and functions of the 
government of the East India Company. 

The earliest accounts of Indian government 
are those handed down in the Institutes of 
Menu. The basis of rule was then laid down 
in a recognition of caste, and of the relations 
which existed among the four great orders 
into which society was divided, and which, 
in describing the religion of India, were suffi¬ 
ciently explained. The earliest form of go¬ 
vernment of which we have any knowledge 
was that which the words superior chieftain¬ 
ship, rather than absolute monarchy, would 
express. The king w T as supreme ; he was as¬ 
sisted by councils, civil and military, who had 
no other power than that which he assigned 
to them. Yet this king or chief is described 
as amenable to law, as subject in certain cases 
to fine, but no provision seems to have been 
made for his arraignment, nor was the tribunal 
defined to which he was amenable. The 
inference is that the church was the grand 
court of appeal. When the people became 
dissatisfied with the sovereign’s conduct, the 
priesthood was expected to enforce their will: 
the monarch would be powerless before the 
combined priests and people, unless at rare 
conjunctures, when the military class sided 
with the monarch against both. A struggle 
of such sort was frequently maintained. The 
process which an eloquent ethical philosopher 
of our times represents as having marked the 
progress of early society in Persia, scarcely 
less strikingly marked it in India, which de¬ 
rived thence many of its doctrines, political, 
social, and religious. “ The Cvropsedia, and 
the testimonies of Herodotus respecting the 
feelings of the Persians towards their king, 
and his inseparable connection with their 
worship, fully confirm another most important 
inference which we shall deduce from the 
legends respecting Zerduseht.* The Magian, 
officially, was his antagonist; some monarch 
was always the ally in his reforms. To exalt 
the royal above the sacerdotal function, to 
prevent the kings from being the servants of 
tlie priests, was unquestionably a great part 
of his work. Herein he was probably acting 
out a faith which was far older in Persia than 
himself. It is difficult not to trace—most 

* A reformer of the system of the ancient Persian 
Magi. 


modern historians have traced—an opposition 
between the Persian and Median tribes (an 
opposition not preventing but necessitating 
an attempt at union between them) which 
points to more than the strife of mere per¬ 
sonal feelings and interests. The Median 
predominance seems always to indicate the 
triumph of a priestly order and of priestly 
habits : the Persian prevalence shows that a 
king is ruling who knows that he is a king, 
and is determined to maintain his authority 
against all opposers, by whatever visible or 
invisible instruments they may work. The 
nobler kings—such as were Cyrus and Darius 
Hystaspes—do not merely proclaim their own 
tyranny: they assert that Ormusd* is king; 
they are as entirely religious as those who 
are leagued against them : their faith is the 
ground of all their acts; in the strength of it 
they decree justice, organize satrapies, im¬ 
prove the tillage of the land, and constitute 
one of those mighty monarchies in wdiich we 
recognise the character, strength, and spirit 
of Asia. In these monarchies everything 
depends upon the central power, or rather 
upon the earnestness with which the cen¬ 
tral power confesses its subjection to a 
gracious and beneficent Power, in whose 
name it rules and fights. The inscrip¬ 
tions which Major Rawlinsonj- has recently 
interpreted, show how remarkably this was 
the case with Darius Hystaspes : they embody 
the very spirit of the Zerduseht reformation, 
and might almost tempt us to the notion—a 
favourite with some German critics (not, 
however, it seems to us, compatible with any 
of the popular traditions)—that he was iden¬ 
tical with the Prophet. He no doubt realised 
the conception of the teacher much more than 
any mere teacher could have realised it. His 
order was that attempt to imitate the order of 
the heavenly bodies, the calmness and regu¬ 
larity of nature, which one who looked upon 
light as the centre of the outward universe, 
and the king as the centre of the human 
society, would especially have admired and 
rejoiced in.” J Thus the influence of the 
sacerdotal order was apparently op]X)sed to 
the throne, while in reality supporting it; or in 
appearance upholding its despotism without 
limitation, but really restraining it. There was 
natural opposition, yet necessary union. The 
operation of these relations upon the govern¬ 
ment, and the condition of the mass of the 
people, was to consolidate a despotism tem¬ 
pered by moral influence and by an ecclesi- 

* The good god of ancient Persian mythology. 

f Now Lieutenant-colonel Sir Henry Creswick Raw- 
linson, K.C.B. 

+ The Rev. F. D. Maurice’s Moral and Mel a pity deal 
Philosophy. 









284 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


astical imperium in imperio. One of the 
statutes of the code, recognised as of divine 
authority, ordained that the monarch should 
always have a priest as a member of his 
household. Indeed, the laws laid down as 
necessary for the government of the monarch 
were as extensive, stringent, and minute, as 
those which regulated the lives and allegiance 
of the people. Yet from the strictness of the 
laws, and their number, ensuring the protec¬ 
tion of the monarch’s person against poison, 
the knife, strangulation, &c., it may be in¬ 
ferred that, while the theory of his absolutism 
was not perhaps ostensibly questioned, it was 
not considered too sacred for those of his sub¬ 
jects who were aggrieved by it to defy it, and 
assail the person of the king himself. 

Local peculiarities, great natural divisions, 
and causes which can now be but imperfectly 
traced, separated the inhabitants ©f India into 
different communities, under different chiefs; 
but the relations of the monarch, the warriors, 
the priesthood, and the people, remained 
everywhere essentially the same, and the 
policy, domestic and foreign, of all the dif¬ 
ferent courts was identical. The Institutes 
of Menu were respected by all; and before 
the principles of law that hook afterwards con¬ 
tained were codified, they were the vital ele¬ 
ments in the political life of all the states of 
India. Among the political lessons given to 
the sovereigns from the sacred hook was that of 
endeavouring to sow dissensions among their 
enemies in their foreign policy. This injunc¬ 
tion of course received a very wide construc¬ 
tion. If one prince desired the territoi’ies of 
another, the latter was accounted an enemy, 
and the aggrandizer most religiously set to 
work to obey the counsel of the sacred book, 
by carrying intrigue and dissension into the 
court and country of his peaceful neighbour, 
perhaps his ally; or it might be that this 
finesse was practised against one who was 
employing the like against him. Hence the 
foreign policy of the native rulers has in all 
ages been utterly profligate. The enjoined 
principles of negotiation are not so corrupt in 
“the book” as in the interpretation given; 
but so universal has this loose interpretation 
been, that the diplomacy of the native princes 
has been without faith—for even when en¬ 
gagements have been kept, convenience, not 
loyalty, regulated the procedure. 

Among what may be called the curiosities 
of ancient Indian government are the direc¬ 
tions which the sacred laws unfold for the 
employment of spies, whether for govern¬ 
mental or military purposes. They were to 
be chiefly chosen from artful youths, degraded 
anchorites, needy husbandmen, ruined mer¬ 
chants, and fictitious penitents. These direc¬ 


[Chap. XIII. 

tions have been but too faithfully followed in 
India ever since. 

As general rules of policy, kings were en¬ 
joined to regard all neighbouring princes 
as enemies, but those whose territory lay 
beyond that of a neighbouring prince as a 
natural ally, and others as probable neutrals. 
Hence the protection of the second class of 
princes was often sought against the first, on 
terms ruinous to the independence of the state 
which sought it. Intrigue, chicanery, faith¬ 
less cunning, disgraceful servility, the most 
perfidious treachery, and undying suspicion, 
resulted from this religiously enjoined policy. 

Some of the early institutions of India 
resembled those of the feudal system in 
Europe. There were lords who rendered 
service to the supreme sovereign, but who 
held a species of limited sovereignty themselves. 
The lords of a single town, or of ten towns, or 
of one hundred towns, took rank accordingly, 
and held a position of relative importance and 
power. 

It would appear that in the earliest times 
there existed municipal institutions in India, 
bearing some resemblance in their govern¬ 
ment and customs to those of the Basque 
provinces in Spain. A considerable amount 
of personal freedom, local order, and security 
to property, was maintained by the old Indian 
municipalities, the remains of which exist in 
India to this day. 

When the Mohammedans conquered India, 
they introduced various alterations more in 
harmony with their own religious system. 
In the villages, and the remoter parts of the 
country, the old municipal system was respected 
by the conquerors, but in the large cities the 
will of the monarch more directly influenced 
the administration of affairs. Centralization, 
as opposed to local government, became the 
rule. 

The Mohammedan rulers originated the 
class known as zemindars. These are now a 
sort of feudatory landholders under the go¬ 
vernment, possessing the right to sub-let. 
Under the Mohammedan dominion they were 
merely superintendents of districts, called 
pergunnahs. 

The government of the Mussulman dy¬ 
nasties was in India, as it has been elsewhere, 
absolute. It has been described as “a des¬ 
potism tempered by fanaticism; ” and again 
as “ a despotism held in check by conspiracy 
and assassination.” 

The fiscal system of the Hindoos was very 
simple. Their sources of revenue were few. 
The produce of the land was the chief subject 
of taxation; commerce was also taxed; various 
trades paid imposts; and every mechanic 
rendered twelve days’ service to the state, 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


285 


Chai\ XIII.] 

The levy upon agricultural produce was gra¬ 
duated; grain sustained an impost of from 
one-twelfth to one-sixth, according to cir¬ 
cumstances, which were equitably taken into 
consideration: on rare occasions—such as 
war, or for some great public work—one- 
fourth of the grain produce was taken by the 
state. One-sixth of all other products of the 
fields was the highest amount exacted, and 
the same rate was demanded from manufac¬ 
turers on the results of their skill. One-fifth 
of all sales was payable to the crown. Estates 
for which there were no heirs, and all other 
property remaining unclaimed for three years, 
were escheated to the monarch. One-half 
of the mineral wealth yielded in his dominions 
was forfeited to the king. 

The laws relating to proprietary in land and 
tenure were complicated and obscure. Cus¬ 
tom and arbitrary power must have deter¬ 
mined many questions which were sure to 
arise in connection with this description of 
property. The townships, municipalities, 
and villages held the land in many places, 
— as these communities were little com¬ 
monwealths, with the local government of 
which the crown seldom interfered, so long 
as the revenue was collected, for the payment 
of which the municipal officers were them¬ 
selves responsible. The mayor, or head man, 
especially bore this responsibility. In the 
earliest ages this person was elected; subse¬ 
quently the appointment depended upon the 
sovereign; and, finally, as it became the cus¬ 
tom to confer it upon the son, or adopted son, 
of the person who died in the office, it became 
hereditary. The post was deemed honour¬ 
able, and the emolument was considerable, de¬ 
rived partly by royal stipend, and partly by 
municipal fees. The collection of revenue was 
rendered the more easy in the townships by 
the association of two officers—one called the 
accountant, answering pretty well to our 
English town clerks, as he was supposed to 
be conversant with the laws of revenue; the 
other was called the watchman, whose office 
nearly corresponded to our chiefs of civic police. 

Although this was the usual style of village 
communities, and their mode of land occu¬ 
pancy and revenue, there were in some places 
two separate classes in the communal circle. 
One of these was the owners of the land; the 
other included cultivators, labourers, shop¬ 
keepers, and various descriptions of temporary 
servants. The rights of the landholders w T ere 
collective, and the distribution of proceeds 
w r as always so ordered as to preserve the 
recognition of this. In all villages there were 
two descriptions of tenants, who rented the 
land from the community of village pro¬ 
prietors, or from the crown, where the former 


class did not exist. Both classes were called 
ryots ; one was temporary, the other per¬ 
manent. The latter bequeathed their in¬ 
terest in the tenancy; they held a species of 
“tenant right.” The former held his land by 
lease, or was a “tenant-at-will.” Persons 
who, by caste prerogative, could not work, 
were allowed land on comparatively easy 
conditions, so that they might employ others. 
In certain portions of Southern India—such 
as Canara, Malabar, and Travancore—indi¬ 
viduals held the “ fee simple,” or were 
subject to a certain fixed payment to the 
crown, but acted otherwise with their land as 
they thought proper. The zemindars origi¬ 
nally derived their lands by grants from the 
king for military, political, or other services. 
Ecclesiastical lands were set apart for reli¬ 
gious purposes, and were under the control 
of the confraternity of the temple or mosque 
to which the property appertained. It must 
be obvious from all these arrangements that 
the machinery of taxation was effective, and 
the expense of collecting the revenue com¬ 
paratively little. 

The Tartar conquerors of Hindoostan in¬ 
troduced various innovations, wduch tended 
to oppress the people both as to the tenure, 
assessment, and modes of collection, but 
chiefly as to the amounts levied, which were 
in many cases exorbitant; and also in select¬ 
ing new objects of assessment — such as 
ploughs, music in ceremonies, marriages, &c. 
The result of these measures was to render 
the amount of revenue less certain, and ulti¬ 
mately less in value, for the people resisted 
the oppressions by cunning, evasion, abstrac¬ 
tion of crops, falsification of accounts, and the 
bribery of municipal officers. The distin¬ 
guished monarch Akbar Khan remedied many 
of these evils, and the meliorations he pro¬ 
duced remained in more or less force until 
the power of England was established. 

The general effects of the political and 
fiscal systems were unfavourable, although 
the evils were somewhat mitigated by the 
municipalities; yet even these narrowed the 
sympathies of the Hindoos, and w r ere morally 
injurious in some respects, though they 
favoured morality in others. The municipal 
institutions have been very much overpraised 
by a certain class of writers, who are zealous 
to exalt everything native in India, at the 
expense of everything British; and to com¬ 
mend everything heathen and Hindoo, in 
comparison w T ith what is Christian. 

After two thousand years of bad govern¬ 
ment and oppression, of intestine strife and 
foreign invasion, European nations began to 
set up factories on the Indian peninsula for 
the purpose of trade. The English were not 









286 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIII. 


first in these enterprises, but they were the 
most resolute and persistent. During the 
whole of the sixteenth century the English 
made efforts more or less successful to open 
up a trade with India. On the last day of 
the sixteenth century Queen Elizabeth signed 
a charter, constituting a number of gentle¬ 
men, associated for the purpose of trade with 
India, “ one body, corporate and politique.” 
The title given to this association was, “ The 
Governor and Company of Merchants of 
London trading to the East Indies.” The 
charter was granted for fifteen years, unless 
in the meantime two years’ notice was given 
of her majesty’s intention to revoke it. De¬ 
lays and impediments arose, and the funds of 
the company proved to be inadequate, so that 
it became necessary to form an auxiliary asso¬ 
ciation, which was ultimately absorbed in the 
former, with the consent of the crown. The 
charter accorded powers to a governor and 
twenty-four directors to govern the new 
company. At first these officials were nomi¬ 
nated by the crown, but afterwards they were 
elected by the body of the proprietors, which 
originally numbered two hundred and twenty 
persons, principally merchants. The charter 
vested in them, their sons, servants, appren¬ 
tices, and factors, the exclusive privilege of 
trading “ into the countries and parts of Asia 
and Afriea, and into and from all' the islands, 
ports, towns, and places of Asia, Africa, and 
America, or any of them beyond the Cape of 
Bona Esperanza or the Straits of Magellan, 
where any traffic may be used, and to and 
from every of them.” The general assemblies 
of the company were empowered to make 
laws and regulations, not only for carrying on 
their commerce, but also to inflict punish¬ 
ments, provided they were not at variance 
with the laws of the realm. They were al¬ 
lowed to purchase lands without limitation, 
and for four years to export goods free of 
duty. 

When the first fleets that conveyed mer¬ 
chandise, supercargoes, and servants of the 
company arrived in India, they found the im¬ 
pediments to successful commerce very great. 
They had no land on which to erect stores, 
nor means to protect themselves and their 
servants from peculation, plunder, or vio¬ 
lence. Agents were sent to Delhi to nego¬ 
tiate for land, and privileges necessary for 
such purposes, which were all that the company 
then contemplated. The result was permis¬ 
sion to establish factories at Surat, Cambay, 
&c., under circumstances whieh enabled the 
company to possess lands, and raise defences 
for their protection. 

In 1609 the charter was renewed. In 
1013 the imperial firman for the establish¬ 


ment of a lactory at Surat was obtained. 
Sir Thomas Rowe, by his skill in the em¬ 
bassy to Ajmeer, obtained liberty of trade 
throughout the empire. 

In 1634 a competitive company, called 
“ The Assada Merchants,” obtained from the 
Mogul liberty to trade at the port of Piplee, 
in Orissa. In 1644 this new association was 
amalgamated with the original company. In 
1640 the rajah ruling that portion of the 
Coromandel coast permitted the erection of 
Fort St. George. 

Some years afterwards an English phy¬ 
sician named Broughton having cured the 
favourite daughter of Shah Jehan, that muni¬ 
ficent prince conceded to the English liberty 
to erect a factory on the Hoogly, which be¬ 
came the foundation of their subsequent do¬ 
minion in Bengal. In 1650 the factory was 
built at Calcutta. 

Cromwell, in 1657, abolished the company’s 
exclusive privileges. 

Charles II. renewed the charter in 1661, 
and confirmed to the company the Island of 
St. Helena, of which they had taken posses¬ 
sion ten years before. The same year Charles 
married the Infanta Catherine of Portugal, 
and received as a part of her dower the 
Island of Bombay, which he made over to 
the company in 1668. The company began 
to fortify the island on taking possession 
of it. 

In 1693 the charter was again renewed, 
after a formidable opposition in the House of 
Commons, which affirmed by vote the right of 
“every Englishman” to trade with the East. 

A competitive company received a charter 
in 1698, under the title of “The General 
Society trading to the East Indies.” Mr. 
Anderson, in his History of Commerce, re¬ 
presents the competition between the two 
companies as most disastrous, involving both 
in ruin. This state of things led to a coali¬ 
tion in 1702, under the title of “The United 
Company of Merchants trading to the East 
Indies.” The amalgamation of the two asso¬ 
ciations did not take place, however, until five 
years later. 

In 1711 a statute of Queen Anne recog¬ 
nised the corporate capacity of the East India 
Company, and continued their privileges of 
trade. The managing committee in London 
at this juncture took the title of “ Court of 
Directors.” The government in India was 
conducted by a president and council at each 
of the stations. The civil functionaries wei’e 
sent out under what was called covenanted 
service, the terms of which were, that they 
should obey all orders, discharge all debts, 
and treat the natives well. The presidents 
were commanders-in-chief at their respective 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


2S7 


Chap. XIII.] 

stations The garrisons were composed of 
recruits enlisted in England, deserters from 
the Dutch and Portuguese, half-castes, en¬ 
listed in India, and natives, chiefly Rajpoots, 
who were called sipahies (soldiers), a name 
which eventually was changed into one of 
easier pronunciation by English tongues— 
sepoys. 

The character and progress of the company 
hitherto prepared the way for the vast terri¬ 
torial and political power which they were 
destined to assume. The great modern his¬ 
torian of Persia, who is also a great authority 
on Indian affairs, appropriately described 
the company’s career up to this point:— 
“ While we find in the first century of the 
history of the East India Company abundant 
proofs of their misconduct, we also discover a 
spirit of bold enterprise and determined per¬ 
se verance, which no losses could impede, and 
no dangers subdue. To this spirit, which 
was created and nourished by their exclusive 
privileges, they owed their ultimate success. 
It caused them, under all reverses, to look 
forward with ardent hopes to future gains; 
and if it occasionally led them to stain their 
fame by acts of violence and injustice towards 
the assailants of their monopoly, it stimulated 
them to efforts, both in commerce and in war, 
that were honourable to the character of the 
British nation.” 

A new career of government and influence 
now opened upon the honourable company. 
In 1716 Mr. Hamilton, a British surgeon, 
who had been sent on a commercial and 
political mission to Delhi, obtained “a firman 
of privileges” from the Mogul— 

1. That the passport of the company’s president should 
exempt all British goods from examination by the Mogul’s 
government officers. 

2. That the officers of the mint at Moorshedabad 
should give three days a week for the coinage of the 
company’s money there. 

3. That all debtors of the company should be delivered 
up on demand. 

4. That the company might purchase the lordships of 
thirty-eight towns in Bengal, with certain specified im¬ 
munities. 

In 1744 George II. continued the privi¬ 
leges of the company. In two years after that 
the war with the French began, which lasted 
until 1761, and issued in the triumph of the 
company, the increase of its territory, and of 
its power and influence at home. 

The conquests of Clive having still further 
increased the company’s territory, George III., 
in 1767, by statute (7, cap. 57), guaranteed 
these territories for two years to the company 
upon their payment of £400,000. In 1769 
this act was confirmed for five years. 

The company having, in 1772, assumed 
the entire control of Bengal, a committee of 


the House of Commons was appointed to in¬ 
quire into the state of India. Nothing of a 
practical nature issued that session from the 
inquiry, which was renewed the next year. 
In that year the first provision was made for 
the government of India by the imperial par¬ 
liament—statute 13 George III., cap. 63. 
Hitherto the election of the directors of the East 
India Company had been annual, but by this 
new act they were to be elected for certain 
terms of years. A governor-general and four 
councillors were appointed to conduct affairs in 
India, Fort William, at Calcutta, being made 
the seat of government. The act empowered 
the governor-general to frame ordinances and 
regulations, which, in order to have force, 
were to be registered in a supreme court 
constituted by the act, and holding its ses¬ 
sions at Calcutta. In the same year another 
act (13 George III., cap. 64) was passed, 
regulating the financial relations of the com¬ 
pany and the government. This act also 
bound the company to export annually 
£380,837 worth of merchandise, exclusive of 
naval and military stores, but this obligation 
was only to last for two years. In conse¬ 
quence of these acts of the British legislature, 
Warren Hastings was appointed governor- 
general. 

In 1781 (21 George III., cap. 65) the 
company’s privileges were confirmed and 
continued for ten years, determinable thence 
after a three years’ notice. The financial 
decrees of the English legislature were at the 
same time grasping, and unjust towards the 
company, which was to pay £400,000 per 
annum, their dividends to be limited to eight 
per cent., and after payment of it three-fourths 
of their surplus receipts were to be paid into 
the exchequer. 

This settlement did not give satisfaction, 
and in 1782 a select committee of the com¬ 
mons sat on Indian affairs. In the result of 
that session, the year 1783 was made notable 
in the concerns of the East India Company 
by the celebrated bills of Mr. Fox. Only 
two years previously he was instrumental in 
breaking up “ the board of plantations ” and 
“the colonial department.” It was near the 
close of the year that Fox introduced his 
measures: the first was for vesting the affairs 
of the East India Company in the hands of 
seven directors, aided by nine proprietors. 
The board was to have the disposal of all 
patronage. The second bill was for the 
better government of the territoiial posses¬ 
sions in India, the regulation of land tenures, 
and the abolition of monopolies. Neither of 
these bills passed, but their discussion pre¬ 
pared the way for the adoption of a policy 
towards the company by the imperial govern- 














288 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIH. 


ment which was destined to prevail, under 
various modifications, for three-quarters of a 
century. Pitt really derived his suggestions 
from Fox in the plans which he afterwards 
perfected. There can be no doubt that both 
these statesmen were influenced by a desire 
to frame a government for India the most 
likely to secure patronage and power for their 
respective parties; and that jealousy of the 
Whigs, and of liberal notions in general, 
moved both Pitt and his master, George III.,, 
to the opposition which the measures of Fox 
encountered from them. 

In 1784 parliament again took up the 
question of Indian government. By 24 
George III., cap. 25, the crown was autho¬ 
rised to appoint six privy councillors as com¬ 
missioners for the affairs of India; three to 
form a quorum, and either the chancellor of 
the exchequer, or one of the secretaries of 
state, to be president. The power of the 
directors was increased in certain directions, 
and better defined in all respects. The 
right to fill up vacancies in the offices of 
governors at Fort St. George and Bombay, 
and in that of governor-general, ■ was con¬ 
ceded to them. They were also empowered 
to recall the governor-general, to declare 
war, and to make peace. A secret committee 
was selected from the body of the directors, 
endowed with peculiar prerogatives. The 
supreme council at Calcutta, as constituted by 
the bill, was to consist of the governor- 
general and three councillors, the commander- 
in-chief to rank next in authority to his 
excellency. The commissioners appointed 
by the act were, in their collective capacity, 
called “ the Board of Control.” This was 
the chef-d'ceuvre of Pitt’s bill, and the scheme 
has never worked well. Mr. Washington 
Wilks, the editor of a journal in the north of 
England, well expressed the relation of “ the 
board” to the company when he said, “ The 
Board of Control never compelled the directors 
to do right, but often compelled them to do 
wrong when they would not.” If this sen¬ 
tence is only to be received with some quali¬ 
fication, it is nevertheless a correct general 
description of the fact. 

In the years 1786, 1813, 1833, and 1853, 
“ Pitt’s Act” received modifications, but the 
principles of the measure have remained as 
constituting the Anglo-Indian political system. 
The legislative power remained with the 
court of directors, who were the source of all 
civil, political, and military authority, and 
ostensibly held the right of dismissing gover¬ 
nors, governors-.general, commanders-in-chief, 
and all officers civil or military, of whatsoever 
grade, and exercising whatsoever functions. 
Still all these prerogatives were subject to the 


consent of the crown, given through the 
Board of Control, which revised all decisions 
and elections. The body of proprietors were 
consulted on all financial changes, and their 
suffrages -were necessary in such matters, 
although it was a nominal rather than a real 
power which the proprietary exercised. 

In 1793, by 33 George III., cap. 52, the 
territorial possessions of India, with their 
revenues, and the commercial privileges of 
the company, were continued for twenty 
years. The powers of the Board of Control 
were renewed, increased, and defined. The 
governor - general was invested with en¬ 
larged, and, in some cases, with even abso¬ 
lute powers. New enactments were also 
made for the regulation of the. presidential 
governments. 

The year 1813 was a year of great impor¬ 
tance in the relations of the crown and com¬ 
pany. Again for the space of twenty years 
the possessions of the company were con¬ 
tinued, the expenses of their military estab¬ 
lishments to be defrayed from their land 
revenue. Their exclusive trade with China 
for tea was also confirmed. As will be seen 
by the reader in an early chapter on the 
religions of India, provision was made in that 
year for an ecclesiastical establishment. The 
lease of twenty years held by the company 
from the crown expired in 1833, and another 
renewal for the same period was obtained. 
Various modifications of the company’s charter 
were, however, insisted upon on the part of 
parliament and the crown. The trading 
privileges were abolished, in consequence o'i 
the outcry raised, especially against the 
monopoly of the China tea-trade, throughout 
the British Isles. A fixed dividend of ten 
and a half per cent, per annum was guaran¬ 
teed to their stockholders, on condition of the 
company paying two millions sterling for the 
reduction of the national debt. The dividend, 
however, was subject to a redemption by 
parliament after April, 1784, on payment of 
£200 for every £100 of stock. Or if the 
company should be deprived of the govern¬ 
ment of India previously, then three years’ 
notice made any time after the year 1854 
would entitle the government to redeem the 
guarantee on the terms specified. The board 
of commissioners for the affairs of India 
(Board of Control); was remodelled—seven 
cabinet ministers were made ex-ojficio mem¬ 
bers. The authority of the board was also 
increased: it was empowered to demand 
copies of minutes of courts of proprietors and 
directors, and of all letters and despatches of 
importance which the directors proposed to 
send to India. Should the company refuse 
to give copies, or delay their transmission to 



Chap. XIII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


289 


tlie Board of Control for fourteen days, then 
the latter was authorised to frame despatches 
on the matter in question, whatever it might 
be, and the company was bound to send them 
to India. A still more important right was 
given to “ the board,” one which the company 
regarded as an unjustifiable encroachment; this 
was the power to alter and reduce the annual 
estimates for the company’s home establish¬ 
ment. The board was also empowered to 
send despatches to India in the name of the 
directors, with the concurrence of any three 
members of “the secret committee.” 

The act of 1833 also modified the local 
government of India, which was vested in the 
governor-general and a council of four, three 
of them to be persons who had been in the 
civil or military service ten years, and one 
who had never been before in the service. 
This councii should assemble whenever the 
governor-general might appoint, and pass 
such “acts” as they deemed proper for the 
welfare of India, subject to the sanction 
of the court of directors. Governors and 
councils of three were to administer affairs in 
the Bombay and Madras presidencies, without 
the power of making laws or granting money. 
These changes stung the court of proprietary 
and the directors to the quick, but their 
acquiescence was obtained, which was ren¬ 
dered possible by the patronage which the 
act conceded. All offices, from that of the 
governor-general to the lowest clerk or mili¬ 
tary cadet, were placed in the hands of the 
directors, except a certain reserve, as to 
cadets, held by the Board of Control. The 
crown, however, retained the right of con¬ 
firming the choice in the higher appointments;, 
and if the directors allowed any office to be 
vacant for more than two months, the Board 
of Control was entitled to fill it up. This 
bill was very particular in expressing the 
right of the imperial parliament to legislate 
for India, and it enacted that a statement of 
the company’s finance should be annually laid 
before the houses of the legislature. Various 
important changes in the judicial arrange¬ 
ments of the company’s courts, and in the 
rights of British-born subjects to purchase 
land and reside in India, were comprised in 
this bill. An important act was passed in 
1835, giving power to the directors to sus¬ 
pend the operation of the bill of 1833, so far 
as related to the government of Agra; and 
the governor-general in council was enjoined 
to appoint in such case a lieutenant-governor 
for that province. 

When the lease of power given to the 
company in 1833 expired in 1853, consi¬ 
derable agitation was raised in the country 
against the renewal of their charter. The 

VOL. x. 


constitutional jealousy of the English people 
led them to regard any corporate body with 
suspicion, which seemed to exercise powers 
that belonged only to the queen, lords, and 
commons in parliament assembled. Much of 
this feeling, as directed against the East India 
Company, arose from an imperfect acquaint-, 
ance with the merits of the case, the his¬ 
tory of the company’s Indian affairs having 
previously excited very little attention, even 
amongst members of parliament and professed 
politicians. The existence of this jealous 
state of mind towards the company, which 
was very much fostered by the merchant 
class, was taken advantage of by the govern¬ 
ment of the day, which was anxious, as 
every preceding government had been, to 
acquire the patronage of India as a means of 
preserving office; and from the aristocratic 
sympathies of all cabinets, Whig and Tory, 
they were desirous to disperse the civil and 
military gifts among their own class, hitherto 
so largely bestowed by the company upon 
the middle ranks of British society. 

Victoria 16, 17, cap. 95 confirmed all pre¬ 
vious acts, except where they might prove 
inconsistent with its own enactments. No 
new lease was, however, extended to the 
company; their territorial jurisdiction, and 
all other rights and privileges held under the 
act of 1853 were to remain until parliament 
should provide otherwise. The constitution 
of the court of directors was remodelled; 
instead of twenty-four members it should 
consist of only eighteen, ten of whom to form 
a quorum. Of the eighteen directors, fifteen 
were to be chosen out of the then existing 
body by themselves; three were to be ap¬ 
pointed by the crown. It was also provided 
that the crown nominees should gradually 
increase until the governing body should 
consist of six such, with twelve elected mem¬ 
bers, the whole of the former, and half of the 
latter to consist of persons who should have 
resided ten years in India. No person 
to sit as a director unless he possessed 
£1000 East India stock. Each director was 
to receive a salary of £500 per annum, and 
the chairman and deputy-chairman £1000 
each. These sums were ridiculously small, 
some of the officials in the India-house 
having larger salaries, and rendering ser¬ 
vices which deserved such a requital. The 
directors, if made stipendiaries at all, should 
have been paid on a scale of remuneration 
adequate to their vast responsibility and 
labour. The quorum of the general court of 
proprietors was fixed at twenty. 

This act also instituted changes in the 
council of India. The fourth member of 
council was placed on the same footing as 

p p 










2'JO 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[CiiAr. XII r. 


the three colleagues who had necessarily 
served in India in some other capacity. 
Previously this officer had no vote: by the 
new act his authority was made identical with 
that of his fellow-members. There were 
added to the council four new members, 
entitled to sit and vote only when laws and 
regulations were made. These officers were 
thus selected: the chief-justice of the supreme 
court of India, ex officio ; one of the judges 
of that court; and a civil officer of ten years’ 
standing in each of the presidencies of Bom¬ 
bay and Madras. In addition to these espe¬ 
cial members of council taking part only in 
matters of law, the governor-general had 
power himself to appoint two company’s ser¬ 
vants being of ten years’ standing. All these 
appointments subject to the approbation of 
her majesty, that is, to the Board of Control. 

Previous to the act of 1853, the commander- 
in-chief of the queen’s army in India was not 
necessarily commander-in-chief of the com¬ 
pany’s army: by this statute he became ex 
officio invested with that authority. The 
number of European troops which the com¬ 
pany was to be permitted to employ was 
fixed at twenty thousand as a maxinmm. 
The crown was authorised to appoint law 
commissioners to report on legal reforms. 
The directors received power to enlarge the 
limits of presidencies, to create a new presi¬ 
dency, and appoint a lieutenant-governor. 
The latter provision). pointed to the north¬ 
west provinces, or Agra government.” 
Very important alterations were made in the 
company’s patronage; the civil service, and 
the posts of assistant-surgeons to the forces, 
were thrown open to competition. The 
Board of Control was invested with the right 
of making regulations in reference to all parts 
of the service, as to admission and age of 
candidates at Haileybmy and Addiscomb, the 
civil and military colleges of the company in 
England. It was provided that the Board of 
Control should not ostensibly alter or regulate 
matters connected with the colleges; all 
arrangements made by it were to be laid 
before parliament. The action of the Board 
of Control in reference to Haileybury soon 
assumed an adverse character, for in 1855 a 
bill was brought into parliament, under the 
auspices of the president, entitled “ An Act 
to relieve the East India Company from the 
obligation to maintain the college of Hailey¬ 
bury.” It was provided that no students 
should be admitted after the 1st of January, 
1856, and that it should be closed on January 
30th, 1858. 

It will enable the reader fully to compre¬ 
hend, and easily to remember, the progress 
of imperial legislation in reference to the con¬ 


stitution of the company, to place before him 
the leading articles of the act of 1793, with 
notes of the addenda, or alterations made by 
subsequent acts. The act of 1793 is known 
as 33 George III., cap. 52, and is called, 
“An Act for continuing in the East India 
Company, for a further term, the Possession 
of the British Territories in India, together 
with their exclusive Trade, under certain 
limitations; for establishing further Regula¬ 
tions for the Government of the said Terri¬ 
tories, and the better Administration of Jus¬ 
tice within the same; for appropriating to 
certain uses the Revenues and Profits of the 
said Company; and for making provision for 
the good Order and Government of the 
Towns of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay.” 
The name of the act sufficiently indicates its 
object, so as to render the preamble unneces¬ 
sary. The second section of the act was of 
great importance : 

§ II.—And be jt further enacted by the authority 
aforesaid, that it shall and may he lawful for his majesty, 
his heirs or successors, by any letters patent, or by any 
commission or commissions to be issued under the Great 
Seal of Great Britain, from time to time to nominate, 
constitute, and appoint, during his or their pleasure, 
such members of the privy council (of whom the two 
principal secretaries of state, and the chancellor of 
the exchequer for the time being, shall always be 
three), and such other two persons as his majesty, his 
heirs or successors, shall think fit to be, and who shall 
accordingly be aud be styled commissioners for the affairs 
in India. 

This was the basis of the Board of Con¬ 
trol; but by 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, 
secs. 19 and 20, the constitution of the board 
is in some respects varied. The office of 
commissioner is not restricted to members of 
the privy council, and the following great 
officers of state are to be ex officio commis¬ 
sioners :—the lord president of the council, 
the lord privy seal, the first lord of the trea¬ 
sury, the principal secretaries of state (then 
three, now four), and the chancellor of the 
exchequer. The act of 3 & 4 William IV., 
cap. 85, was passed on the 28tli of August, 
1833, and was entitled, “An Act for effect¬ 
ing an Arrangement with the East India 
Company, and for the better Government of 
His Majesty’s Indian Territories till the 30th 
day of April, 1854.” 

§ III.—And be it further enacted, that any three or 
more of the said commissioners shall and may form a 
board, for executing the several powers which by this 
act, or by any other act or acts, are or shall be given to 
or vested in the said commissioners; and that the first- 
named commissioner in any such letters patent or com¬ 
mission for the time being shall be the president of the 
said board; and that when any board shall be formed in 
the absence of the president, the commissioner whose name 
shall stand next in the order of their nomination in the 
said commission, of those who shall be present, shall for 
tJhat turn preside at the said board. 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


291 


Ctiap. XIII.] 


This provision was subsequently altered, 
for by 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, sec. 21, 
two commissioners are sufficient to constitute 
a board. 

§ IV.—The president to have the casting vote. 

§ V.—The board to appoint officers; their salaries to 
be fixed by his majesty. The whole of the salaries, 
charges, and expenses of the board, exclusive of the 
salaries of the members of the board, not to exceed the 
sum of eleven thousand pounds in any one year. 

By 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, sec. 23, it 
is enacted, that no commissioner as such, ex¬ 
cept the president, shall receive a salary; and 
by 16 & 17 Victoria, cap. 95, see. 33, the 
salary of the president is in no case to be less 
than that paid' to one of' her majesty’s prin¬ 
cipal secretaries of state. By 53 George III., 
cap. 155, sec. 90, the total amount of salaries 
and charges is fixed at twenty-six thousand 
pounds, exclusive, however, of superannua¬ 
tions granted under section 91 of that act. 
Provision is made by 3 & 4 William IV., 
cap. 85, sec. 6, for extraordinary charges 
arising out of the cessation of the company’s 
trade; but by section 110 the sum payable 
by the company on account of the board is 
not to be increased beyond the fixed amount, 
except for defraying those charges. The act 
53 George III., cap. 155, was passed on the 
21st of July, 1813, and was entitled, “An 
Act for continuing in the East India Com¬ 
pany for a further Term the British Terri¬ 
tories in India, together with certain exclu¬ 
sive Privileges; for establishing further Re¬ 
gulations for the Government of the said 
Territories, and the better Administration 
of Justice within the same; and for regu¬ 
lating the Trade to and from the Places within 
the. limits of the said Company’s Charter.” 
The act 16 & 17, Victoria, cap. 95, was 
passed on the 20th of August, 1853, and was 
entitled, “ An Act for the better Government 
of India.” 

§ VI.—Commissioners to take the following oath :— 

“ I, A. B., do faithfully promise and swear that, 
“as a commissioner or member of the hoard for 
“the affairs of India, I will give my best advice and 
“ assistance for the good government of the British 
“ possessions in the East Indies, and the due admin- 
“ istration of the revenues of the same, according 
“ to law, and will execute the several powers and 
“ trusts reposed in me according to. the best of my 
“ skill and judgment, without favour or affection, 

“ prejudice or malice, to any person whatever.” 

Which oath any two of the said commissioners shall and 
are hereby empowered to administer to the others of 
them, or any of them; and the said oath shall be entered 
by their chief secretary amongst the acts of the board, 
and be duly ascribed and attested by the said commis¬ 
sioners, at the time of their taking and administering the 
same to each other respectively 


§ VII.— And be it further enacted, that the several 
secretaries and other officers of the said board shall also 
take and subscribe before the said board such oath of 
secrecy, and for the execution of the duties of their 
respective stations, as the said board shall direct. 

In 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, sec. 24, 
this section is modified, the commissioners 
being empowered to administer such oath 
only in case of its being necessary. 

§ VIII.—Appointments of commissioner or chief secre¬ 
tary not to disqualify from being elected to parliament. 

By 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, sec. 23, 
the board was to appoint two secretaries, each 
of wham was to have the same powers, rights, 
and privileges as were previously vested in 
the chief secretary ; but by 16 & 17 Victoria, 
cap. 95, sec. 33, one only of the said secre¬ 
taries is to be capable of sitting in parlia¬ 
ment. 

§ IX.—Board to superintend all concerns relating to 
the civil or military government or revenues in the East 
Indies. 

By 3 & 4 William IV'., cap. 85, sec. 6, 
the power of control is extended to all acts 
connected with the sale of the company’s 
commercial property.. 

§ X.—Commissioners, or their officers, to have access 
to the books of the company. 

This provision was subsequently enlarged, 
for by 53 George III., cap. 155, sec. 78, the 
board may direct the preparation of such ac¬ 
counts, statements, and abstracts, as they may 
think fit. 

§ XI.—Court of Directors to deliver to the board 
copies of all proceedings, and of despatches relating to 
the civil or military government or revenues. 

This provision was extended by 3 & 4 
William IV., cap. 85, sec. 29, to all docu¬ 
ments which shall be material, or which the 
board may require. 

§ XII.— Orders relating to the civil or military go¬ 
vernment or revenues to be submitted to the consideration 
of the board, who may alter the same, but must return 
such documents to the court of directors within fourteen 
days. 

By later enactments the power of control 
is extended to all official communications, 
except those with the home establishment, 
and the law advisers of the company. 3 & 4 
William IV., cap. 85, secs. 30 and 34. By 
53 George III., cap. 155, sec. 71, and by 
3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, sec. 30, the 
time for returning drafts of despatches, &c., 
from the board is extended to two months. 

§ XIII.—Provided always, and be it further enacted, 
that nothing herein contained shall extend, or be con¬ 
strued to extend, to restrict or prohibit the said directors 
from expressing by representation in writing to the said 
















292 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIII. 


board, such remarks, or observations, or explanations as 
shall occur, or they shall think fit, touching or concern¬ 
ing any letters, orders, or instructions, which shall have 
been varied in substance, or disapproved by the said 
board; and that the said board shall, and they are hereby 
required, to take every such representation, and the seve¬ 
ral matters therein contained or alleged, into their con¬ 
sideration, and to give such further orders or instructions 
thereupon as they shall think fit and expedient; which 
orders or instructions shall be final and conclusive upon 
the said directors. 

By 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, sec. 32, 
the time for making such representation is 
limited to fourteen days; subject, in cases 
where the legality of the order is disputed, 
to a reference to three or more judges of the 
court of the Queen’s Bench. 

§ XIV.—Provided also, and be it further enacted and 
declared, that nothing in this act contained shall extend 
to give to the board of commissioners the power of nomi¬ 
nating or appointing any of the servants of the said 
united company, anything herein contained to the contrary 
notwithstanding. 

By 16 & 17 Victoria, cap. 95, sec. 29, the 
approbation of the board is made necessary 
to the validity of the appointment of any 
advocate-general. 

§ XV.—If the directors neglect to frame despatches 
beyond fourteen days after requisition, the board may 
prepare instructions, and the directors shall forward them 
to India. 

This provision was extended to all official 
communications by 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 
85, sec. 31. 

Section 16 restricted the interference of 
the board to matters of civil or military go¬ 
vernment and revenue ; and where the right 
should be disputed, authorised an application 
to the king in council. Neither of these pro¬ 
visions is now in force. 

§ XVII.—The board not to direct the increase of 
established salaries, unless proposed by the directors, and 
laid before parliament. 

This provision is taken from 28 George 
III., cap. 8, sec, 3, and in 3 & 4 William IV., 
cap. 85, sec. 110. An exception was made 
for servants employed in winding up the 
commercial business of the company. 

§ XVIII.—The board not to direct auy gratuity but 
such as shall he proposed by the directors. 

In 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, sec. 110, 
the same exception as in the previous section 
of this act is made. 

§ XIX.—The board may send orders to secret com¬ 
mittee of directors, who shall transmit the same to India. 

§ XX.—And be it further enacted, that the said court 
of directors shall from time to time appoint a secret com¬ 
mittee, to consist of any number not exceeding three of 
the said directors, for the particular purposes in this act 
specified; which said directors so appointed shall, before 


they or any of them shall act in the execution of the 
powers and trusts hereby reposed in them, take an oath 

of the tenor following.Which said oath shall and 

may be administered by the several and respective mem¬ 
bers of the said secret committee to each other; and, 
being so by them taken and subscribed, the same shall be 
recorded by the secretary of the said court of directors for 
the time being amongst the acts of the said court. 

The prescribed oath is here omitted, hav¬ 
ing been replaced by other’s in 53 George 

III. , cap. 155, sec. 74, and 3 & 4 William 

IV. , cap. 84, sec. 35. The latter is merely 
an abbreviation of the former, and thus runs : 

“ I, A. B., do swear that I will, according to my 
“ best skill and judgment, faithfully execute the seve- 
“ ral trusts and powei’3 reposed iu me as a member 
“ of the secret committee of the India Company; I 
“will not disclose or make known any of the secret 
“ orders, instructions, despatches, official letters, or 
“ communications, which shall be sent or given to 

- “ me by the commissioners for the affairs of India, 
“ save only to the other members of the said secret 
“ committee, or to the person or persons who shall 
“ be duly nominated or employed in transcribing or 
“preparing the same respectively, unless I shall be 
“ authorised by the said commissioners to make 
“known the same. 5 ’ 

The directions for the appointment of a 
secret committee, and the administration of 
an oath to its members, are repeated in 3 & 4 
William IV., cap. 85, sec. 35, where also it is 
provided that the record may be made either 
by the secretary or the deputy-secretary. 

§ XXI.—-Despatches of the secret committee to be pre¬ 
pared only by the secretary or examiner of Indian corre¬ 
spondence, who shall take an oath of secrecy. 

§ XXII.—Presidencies in India may send despatches 
to the secret committee, who shall deliver them to the 
board. 

By 53 George III., cap. 155, sec. 73, the 
rule of secrecy with respect to despatches 
addressed by order of the board to the go¬ 
vernments of India is applied to the contents 
of despatches received by the secret com¬ 
mittee from those governments. 

§ XXIII.—And be it further enacted, that no order or 
resolution of the court of directors of the said company, 
touching or concerning the civil or military government 
or revenues of the said territories and acquisitions in 
India, after the same shall have received the approbation 
of the board of commissioners for the affairs of India, 
shall be liable to be rescinded, suspended, revoked, or 
varied, by any general court of proprietors of the said 
company. 

Section 24 contains provisions for the con¬ 
stitution of the governments of the three pre¬ 
sidencies, which are superseded by the later 
provisions contained in 3 & 4 William IV., 
cap. 85. These will be noticed on another 
page. 

§ XXV.—And be it further enacted, that all vacancies 
happening in the office of governor-general of Fort 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


293 


Chap. XIII.] 

William, in Bengal, or of any members of the council 
there, or of governor of either of the company’s presi¬ 
dencies or settlements of Fort St. George or Bombay, or 
of any of the members of the council of the same respec¬ 
tively, or of governor of the forts and garrisons at Fort 
William, Fort St. George, or Bombay, or of commander- 
in-chief of all the forces in India, or of any provincial 
commander-in-chief of the forces there, all and every of 
such vacancies shall be filled up and supplied by the court 
of directors of the said united company, the vacancies of 
any of the said members of council being always supplied 
from amongst the list of senior merchants of the said 
company, who shall have respectively resided twelve years 
in India in their service, and not otherwise, except as is 
hereinafter otherwise provided. 

The approbation of the crown is now 
necessary to the appointment of governor- 
general, governors of subordinate presidencies, 
members of council, whether of the council of 
India, or of any subordinate presidency. 
Changes to this effect were made by 53 
George III., cap. 155, sec. 80, and 3 & 4 
William IV., cap. 85, secs. 42, 58, and 61, 
in reference to governor-generals and go¬ 
vernors. As to the appointment of the fourth 
ordinary member of the council of India, by 
3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, sec. 40; as to 
members of council generally, by 16 & 17 
Victoria, cap. 95, sec. 20. By 16 & 17 Vic¬ 
toria, cap. 95, sec. 30, any person appointed 
commander-in-chief of the forces of the crown 
in India is, by virtue of such appointment, to 
be commander-in-chief of all the company’s 
forces in India, and the commander-in-chief 
of the royal forces in any presidency is to be 
commander-in-chief of the company’s forces 
in such presidency. By 53 George III., 
cap. 155, sec. 82, and 3 & 4 William IV., 
cap. 85, sec. 40, the twelve years’ residence 
required as a qualification for councillor 
is reduced to ten. Under the same section 
of the act last mentioned, military officers 
having completed the required period of ser¬ 
vice are eligible for appointment to the coun¬ 
cil of India, and the fourth ordinary mem¬ 
ber of that council is to be a person not pre¬ 
viously in the service of the company. In 
the above section, and in numerous acts ante¬ 
cedent to 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, 
the functionary holding the chief place of 
authority in India is named Governor-general 
of Fort William, in Bengal. By section 39 
of the act last mentioned, the office of go¬ 
vernor-general of India was created, and by 
section 52 all powers given to the governor- 
general of Fort William, in Bengal, in council 
or alone, by former acts then in force, and 
not repugnant to 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, 
were to apply to the governor-general of 
India in council, and to the governor-general 
of India alone, respectively. 

§ XXVI.—If the directors neglect to fill up vacancies, 
his majesty may supply them. 


In 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, sec. 60, 
this provision is lepeated. 

§ XXVII.—And be it further enacted, that it shall be 
lawful for the said court of directors to appoint any per¬ 
son or persons provisionally to succeed to any of the 
offices aforesaid, for supplying any vacancy or vacancies 
therein, when the same shall happen by the death or 
resignation of the person or persons holding the same 
office or offices respectively, or on his or their departure 
from India, or on any event or contingency expressed in 
any such provisional appointment or appointments to the 
same respectively, and such appointments again to revoke; 
but that no person so appointed to succeed provisionally 
to any of the said offices shall be entitled to any authority, 
salary, or emolument appertaining thereto, until he shall 
be in the actual possession of such office, any act or 
statute to the contrary notwithstanding. 

3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, sec. 61, repeats 
this provision. In 16 & 17 Victoria, cap. 95, 
sec. 20, the appointment of ordinary members 
of council, whether of India or of the subordi¬ 
nate presidencies, is made subject to the 
approbation of the crown. 

Section 28 provides that nothing in this 
act shall extend to vacate or disturb any pre¬ 
vious appointment, lawfully made. 

§ XXIX.—How vacancies are to be supplied when no 
successors are on the spot. 

§ XXX.—The next member of council to the com¬ 
mander-in-chief to succeed to the temporary government 
of a presidency, unless the commander-in-chief shall have 
been provisionally appointed. 

§ XXXI.—Vacancy of counsellors, when no successors 
are on the spot, to be supplied by the governor in coun¬ 
cil from the senior merchants. 

§ XXXII.—The commander-in-chief, when not the go¬ 
vernor at the presidency, may, by the authority of the 
directors, be the second member of the council. 

This provision was repeated in 45 George 
III., cap. 36, and 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 
85, sec. 40. 

5 XXXT1I.—The commander-in-chief in India, not 
being governor-general, while resident at Fort St. George 
or Bombay, shall be a member of the council. 

§ XXXIV.—If any member shall be incapable of 
attending, the governor of the presidency may call to the 
council a provisional successor, &c. 

§ XXXV.—His majesty, by sign-manual, countersigned 
by the president of the board, may remove any officer or 
servant of the company in India. 

This enactment was confirmed by 3 & 4 
William IV., cap. 85, sec. 74. 

§ XXXVI.—The act not to preclude the directors from 
recalling their officers or servants. 

The right of the directors in this respect is 
more fully recognised in 53 George III., cap. 
155, sec. 80; 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, 
sec. 75; and sec. 60 of 3 & 4 William IV., 
cap. 85. 

§ XXXVII.—Departure from India of any governor- 
general, &c., with intent to return tc Europe, to be 












294 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap XIII. 


deemed a resignation of employment, &c. While at the 
presidency, no resignation of a governor-general, &c., to 
be valid, except delivered in writing to the secretary. 
Regulation respecting salaries. 

This provision was amended and extended 
in the acts of 1813 and 1853. 

§ XXXVIII.—Councils, in the first place, to consider 
matters proposed by the governor, who may postpone 
any matters proposed by councillors. 

§ XXXIX.—Proceedings to be expressed to he made 
by the governor and council, and signed by the secretary. 

Repeated in 3 ■& 4 William IV., cap. 85, 
sec. 57. 

§ XL.—The governor-general in council at Fort Wil¬ 
liam empowered to superintend the other presidencies. 

This provision was repeated in 13 George 
III., cap. 63, sec. 9. By 3 & 4 William IV., 
cap. 85, sec. 39, the superintendence, direc¬ 
tion, and control of the whole civil and mili¬ 
tary government of India is vested in the 
governor-general in council.; by section 59 of 
that act the subordinate governments are not 
to make or suspend laws excepting under 
urgent necessity, and then only provisionally; 
nor to create any new office, nor to grant any 
salary, allowance, or gratuity, without the 
sanction of the governor-general in council; 
by section 65 they are bound to obey the 
instructions and orders of the governor-gene¬ 
ral in council in all cases whatsoever. 

§ XLI.—The other presidencies to obey the orders of 
the governor-general in council at Fort William, if not 
repugnant to instructions from England. Governor- 
general to send dates, &c., of despatches from England, 
on points contained in instructions to presidencies, &c., 
who shall transmit to him copies of any orders they deem 
repuguant thereto. 

The next section discloses the policy of the 
East India Company in the days of Pitt, and 
this policy was recognised by every board of 
control and every board of direction since. 
It was in the personal dispositions of gover- 
nors-general, and the necessities of the case, 
that the causes of war in India, issuing in the 
increase of territory, are to be sought. 

§ XLII.—And forasmuch as to pursue schemes of con¬ 
quest and extension of dominion iu India are measures 
repugnaut to the wish, the honour, and policy of this nation, 
be it further enacted, that it shall not be’ lawful for the 
governor-general in council of Fort William, without the 
express command and authority of the court of directors, 
or of the secret committee by the authority of the board 
of commissioners for the affairs of India, iu any case (ex¬ 
cept where hostilities have actually been commenced, or 
preparations actually made for the commencement of hos¬ 
tilities, against the British nation in India, or against 
some of the princes or states dependent thereon, or whose 
territories the said united company shall be at such time 
engaged by any subsisting treaty to defend or guarantee), 
either to declare war or commence hostilities, or enter 
into any treaty for making war against any of the country 
princes or states in India, or any treaty for guaranteeing 


the possessions of any country princes or states; and that 
in any such case it shall not he lawful for the governor- 
general and council to declare war or to commence hosti¬ 
lities, or to enter into any treaty for making war against 
any other prince or state, than such as shall be actually 
committing hostilities, or making preparations, or to 
make such treaty for guaranteeing the possessions of 
any prince or state, hut upon the consideration of 
such prince or state actually engaging to assist the com¬ 
pany against such hostilities commenced, or preparations 
made as aforesaid; and in all cases where hostilities shall 
be commenced, or treaty made, the governor-general and 
council shall, by the most expeditious means they can 
devise, communicate the same unto the said court of 
directors, or to the said secret committee, together with a 
full state of the information and intelligence upon which 
they -shall have commenced such hostilities, or made such 
treaties, aud their motives and reasons for the same at 
large. 

§ XLIII.—The governments of Fort St. George or 
Bombay not to declare war, &c., but by orders from Fort 
William or the directors, &c. The penalty on the gover¬ 
nors, &c., of Fort St. George and Bombay for neglect of 
orders from Fort William to be suspension or dismissal 
from their posts. 

§ XLIV.—The Presidencies of Fort St. George, &c., to 
send to Fort William copies of all their orders, &c. 

This enactment was renewed in 13 George 
III., cap. 63, sec. 9, and 3 & 4 William IV., 
cap. 85, sec. 68. 

§ XLV.—The governor-general of Fort William may 
issue warrants for securing suspected persons as to any 
treasonable acts or correspondence. Proceedings to be 
had where reasonable grounds for the charge shall appear 
against such persons, or they shall he held in custody 
until convenient opportunity is found for sending them to 
India. 

§ XLVI.—The governors of Fort St. George and Bom¬ 
bay to have the like powers with respect to suspected 
persons as the governor-general. 

§ XLVII.—The governor-general or governors may 
order measures proposed in council about which they 
differ from the other members to he adopted or sus¬ 
pended, &c. 

3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, sec. 49. 
This measure was ostensibly passed to give 
“energy, vigour, and despatch to the mea¬ 
sures and proceedings of the executive go¬ 
vernment.” 

§ XLVIII.—The governor-general, &c., making any 
order without the council, reponsible for the same. 

§ XLIX.—The governor-general, &c., not to make any 
order which could not have been made with the consent 
of the council. 

§ L.—No person to act without the concurrence of the 
council, on whom the office of governor-general or gover¬ 
nor shall devolve by death, unless provisionally ap¬ 
pointed. 

Renewed by 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, 
sec. 62. 

i LI.—Provided also, and be it further enacted, that 
nothing herein contained shall be construed to give power 
or authority to the governor-general of Fort William, in 
Bengal, or either of the governors of Fort St. George or 
Bombay respectively, to make or carry into execution any 
order or resolution against the opinion or concurrence of 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


295 


Chap. XIII.] 

the counsellors of their respective governments, in any 
matter which shall come under the consideration of the 
said governor-general, and governors in council respec¬ 
tively, in their judicial capacity; or to make, repeal, or 
suspend auy general rule, order, or regulation for the 
good order and civil government of the said united com¬ 
pany’s settlements; or to impose, of his own authority, 
any tax or duty within the said respective governments or 
presidencies. 

With regard to the subordinate presi¬ 
dencies, it must be recollected that the go¬ 
vernments of those presidencies have no 
longer the power of legislation,. 

Section 52 provided that when the gover¬ 
nor-general should visit either of the subordi¬ 
nate presidencies, the powers of the governor 
of such subordinate presidency should for the 
time he suspended. But by 3 & 4 William IV., 
cap. 85, sec. 67, it is enacted that those 
powers should not, by reason of such visit, be 
suspended. 

Section 53 provides that, when the gover¬ 
nor-general should he absent from his own 
government of Bengal, a member of the 
council of that presidency, nominated by the 
governor-general, should be vice-president 
and deputy-governor of Fort William. This 
it has been thought unnecessary to insert, in¬ 
asmuch as by 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, 
sec. 70, the governor-general of India in 
council may nominate some member of the 
council of India to exercise the powers of the 
governor-general in assemblies of the said 
council during his absence, under the title of 
president; and by 16 & 17 Victoria, cap. 95, 
sec. 16, power is given to the court of direc¬ 
tors to declare that the governor-general of 
India shall not be governor of Fort William, 
and thereupon a governor of that presidency 
is to be appointed in the usual way ; or au¬ 
thority may be given to the governor-general 
in council to appoint a servant of ten years’ 
standing to be lieutenant-governor of such 
part of the presidency of Fort William as 
may not at the time be under the lieutenant- 
governor of the north-western provinces. 
The latter measure has been carried out. 

§ LIV.—The governor-general, while absent, may issue 
orders to the officers and servants of the other presi¬ 
dencies, &c. 

§ LV.—The directors, with the approbation of the 
board, may suspend the powers of the governor-general 
to act upon his own authority. 

§ LVI.—No civil servants under the rank of member 
of council to be promoted but by seniority. 

§ LVII.—If the salary of a vacant post exceeds five 
nundred pounds per annum, the candidate cannot be pro¬ 
moted unless he has resided three years in India. 

The period of qualification for the higher 
salaries has been varied by more recent legis¬ 
lation. By 53 George III., cap. 155, sec. 


82, it is fixed at four years for a salary ex¬ 
ceeding £1500; at seven years for a salary 
exceeding £3000; at ten years for a salary 
exceeding £4000; which last term (ten years) 
in service, either civil or military, also forms 
the qualification for a seat in council, by 
3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, sec. 40; for the 
appointment of lieutenant-governor of the 
north-west provinces, by 5 & 6 William IV., 
cap. 52; for that of lieutenant-governor of 
Fort William, by 16 & 17 Victoria, cap. 95, 
sec. 16; and by section 22 of the act last 
quoted for the office of legislative councillor, 
thereby created. By 3 & 4 William IV., 
cap. 85, sec. 40, no previous service is re¬ 
quired from the fourth ordinary member of 
the council of India, but it is expressly re¬ 
quired that he shall be selected from persons 
not servants of the company. By 47 George 
III, cap. 68, sec. 7, and 10 George IV., cap. 
16, sec. 2, the time spent at Hailey bury is, 
under certain circumstances, to be reckoned 
as time spent in India-with reference to eligi¬ 
bility to office or salary. 

§ LVIII.—No person to hold two offices, the salaries 
of which amount to more than the prescribed sum. 

§ LIX.—The directors not to send out more persons 
than necessary to supply the complement of the estab¬ 
lishment. 

Also 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, sec. 103. 

§ LX.—No person shall be capable of acting, or being 
appointed or sent to- India, in the capacity of writer or 
cadet, whose age shall be under fifteen years, or shall 
exceed twenty-two years, nor until the person proposed, 
or intended to be so appointed, shall have delivered to 
the said court of directors a certificate of his age, under 
the hand of the minister of the parish in which he was 
baptised, or keeper of the registry of baptism of such 
parish; and if no sueh registry can be found, an 
affidavit of that circumstance shall be made by the party 
himself,, with his information and belief that his age is 
not under fifteen years, and doth not exceed twenty-two 
years; provided, nevertheless, that the said restriction 
shall not extend to prevent the said court of directors 
from appointing any person to be a cadet who shall have 
been for the space of one year at least a commissioned 
officer in his majesty’s service, or in the militia or fencible 
men when, embodied, and hath been called into actual 
service, or from the company of cadets iu the royal regi¬ 
ment of artillery, and whose age shall not exceed twenty- 
five years. 

The age has been extended,'as to writers, 
to twenty-three years, by 7 William IV. and 
1 Victoria, cap. 70, secs. 4 and 5. 

§ LXI.—British-born subjects appointed to receive 
rents, &c., to take an oath. 

The object of this section was to prevent 
servants of the company receiving bribes. 

§ LXII— Receiving gifts to- be deemed a misde¬ 
meanour. 















296 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIII. 


Repeated in 13 George III., cap. 63, secs. 
23 and 24, and 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, 
sec. 76. 

§ LXUI.—The court may order gifts to be restored, 
and fmes to be given to the prosecutor. 

§ LXIV.—Counsellors at law, &c., may take fees in 
their professions. 

Renewed by 13 George III., cap. 63, 
sec. 26. 

§ LXV.—Neglect to execute the orders of the directors, 
&c., to be deemed a misdemeanour. 

Recited in 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, 
sec. 80. 

§ LXVI.—Making any corrupt bargain for giving up 
or obtaining any employment also to be deemed a misde¬ 
meanour. 

§ LXVII.—His majesty’s subjects amenable to courts 
of justice in India and Great Britain for offences in the 
territories of native princes. 

§ LXVIII.—No action to be stayed without the appro¬ 
bation of the board. 

§ LXIX.—The company not to release sentences, or 
restore servants dismissed by sentences. 

By 51 George III., cap. 75, secs. 4 and 5, 
it is declared that the above does not extend 
to the case of military officers dismissed or 
suspended from the service by sentence of 
court-martial, but that such may, with the 
approbation of the board, be restored. 

§ LXX.—No person under the degree of a member of 
council or commander-in-chief, who shall not return to 
India within five years from bis leave to depart, shall be 
entitled to rank, unless in the case of any civil servant of 
the company it shall be proved to the satisfaction of the 
court of directors that such absence was occasioned by 
sickness or infirmity, or unless such person be permitted 
to return with his rank to India by a vote or resolution 
passed by way of ballot by three parts in four of the pro¬ 
prietors assembled in general court, especially convened 
for that purpose, whereof eight days’ previous notice of 
the time and purpose of such meeting shall be given in 
the London Gazette, or unless in the case of any military 
officer, it shall be proved to the satisfaction of the said 
court of directors, and the board of commissioners for the 
affairs of India, that such absence was occasioned by 
sickness or infirmity, or by some inevitable accident. 

Section 71 secures to the company the 
exclusive trade, subject to a subsequent pro¬ 
viso for its determination. 

Section 72 provided that the company 
should at all times thereafter, subject as 
above, enjoy all the benefits of previous acts 
and charters, except as by this act repealed, 
varied, and altered. 

Section 73 contains a proviso for the ter¬ 
mination of the exclusive trade, upon three 
years’ notice. 

Section 74 provided that after the termi¬ 
nation of the exclusive trade the corporation 


should have the right to trade in common 
with other subjects of the crown; but the 
exercise of its trade is suspended by 3 & 4 
William IV., cap. 85. Section 75 regulates 
the mode of parliamentary notice to the com¬ 
pany. Sections 76 to 106 relate to trade; 
sections 107 to 122 to financial matters of 
temporary interest. Section 123 provides 
that the appropriations made by this act 
(33 George III., cap. 52) shall not affect the 
rights of the company or the public as to the 
territory or the revenue beyond the term of 
the exclusive trade granted by the act. Sec¬ 
tion 124 relates to the appropriation of certain 
monies, and has at this time no interest or 
importance. It may here be observed that 
the latest enactments for the disposition of 
the revenues of India will be found in the 
3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, to be noticed on 
another page. 

§ CXXV.—No graut of salaries, &c., above two hun¬ 
dred pounds to be good, unless confirmed by the board. 

This provision depended upon the continu¬ 
ance of the company’s right to exclusive 
trade. The exclusive trade with India ter¬ 
minated in 1814; that with China in 1834; 
but the 53 George III., cap. 155 (sec. 2), 
continued for the term thereby granted, all 
enactments, provisions, matters, and things, 
contained in the 33 George III., cap. 52, and 
in any other acts limited to the term granted 
by the said act of the 33 George III., so 
far as they w'ere in force, and not repealed 
by or repugnant to the act 53 George III., 
cap. 155; and by the 3 & 4 William IV., 
cap. 85, sec. 2, all enactments, &c., of former 
acts limited to the term granted by 53 George 
III., cap. 155, are continued, so far as they 
were in force at the time of passing the new 
act (3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85), and were 
not repealed thereby or repugnant thereto. 
By 53 George III., cap. 155, sec. 88, and 
55 George III., cap. 64, the approval of the 
board is required to give effect to gratuities 
exceeding £600. By 3 & 4 William IV., 
cap. 85, sec. 37, it is enacted that an estimate 
is to be submitted to the board of the sum 
required for the home establishment, and in¬ 
cidental expenses of the East India Company, 
which sum, when approved in the gross, is to 
be applied at the discretion of the court of 
directors, free from any interference of the 
board. All expenditure beyond this sum, 
including salaries, gratuities, and’allowances, 
is subject to the general rule of superintend¬ 
ence by the board. See section 25 of the 
above act, 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85. 

§ CXXYI.—The directors to lay revenue accounts 
before parliament within the first fourteen sitting days 
of March in every year. 




Chav XIII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


2D7 


By 54 George III., cap. 36, sec. 55, the 
accounts were to be made np to the 1st of 
May, and presented to parliament within the 
first fourteen sitting days after that period. 

*By 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 85, sec. 116, the 
accounts are to be presented within the first 
fourteen sitting days after the 1st of May, 
and to he made up according to the latest 
advices. By that act also some changes are 
made in the particulars of the required ac¬ 
counts, adapting them to the altered circum¬ 
stances of the company, all relating to trade 
being omitted. Section 127 provides for the 
reciprocal discharge of the crown and the 
company in respect of certain accounts be¬ 
tween them, up to the 24th of December, 
1792. A similar arrangement to a later date 
was effected by 3 George IV., cap. 93. 

Among other matters in the settlement 
above referred to was that of military charges. 
The subsequent provision for these is the 
subject of the following section :— 

§ CXXVIII.—Prom the twenty-fourth day of Decem¬ 
ber, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, the 
expenses of troops to be repaid by the company. 

Sections 129 to 136 contained penal enact¬ 
ments against persons trading, and provisions 
for the confiscation of their ships and goods. 

§ CXXXVII.—No governor-general, &c., to trade, ex¬ 
cept on account of the company. No judge to be con¬ 
cerned in any trade. No person whatever to be concerned 
in the inland trade in salt, &c., except with the company’s 
permission. 

By act of government of India, No. 15 of 
1848, no officer of any court established by 
royal charter within the territories of the 
East India Company is to be concerned in 
any dealings as a banker, trader, agent, factor, 
or broker, except such as may be part of the 
duty of his office. 

Sections 138 and 139 relate to trade. 

Section 140 relates to the prosecution of 
offences against this act. 

Section 141 enacts how actions shall be 
laid, and states the limitation of actions, and 
process. 

Sections 142 to 145 referred to legal pro¬ 
ceedings against clandestine traders. By 
section 146 the following enactments of 
earlier date are repealed:—So much of 9 
& 10 William III., cap. 44, as inflicts penalty 
or forfeiture for illegally trading to the East 
Indies; the whole of the 5 George I., cap. 
21, intended for the protection of the com¬ 
pany’s trade, and all enactments continuing 
the same ; so much of the 7 George I., cap. 
21, as relates to the punishment of per¬ 
sona illegally trading to the East Indies ; 
the whole of the 9 George I., cap. 26, 
for preventing a subscription for an East 
India Company in the Austrian Netherlands, 

von. i. 


and for protection of the lawful trade of his 
majesty’s subjects; so much of the 3 George 

11., cap. 14, and so much of 27 George II., 
cap. 17, as creates any penalty with reference 
to 7 George I., cap. 21, for the mode of 
suing, distributing, and recovering such pen¬ 
alty; so much of 10 George III., cap. 47, as 
subjects persons concerned in illicit trade to 
penalties; so much of 13 George III., cap. 
53, as provides for delivery by the company 
of letters of advice to the secretaries of state, 
makes it unlawful for the governor-general, 
the members of council of Bengal, the chief 
justice or judges of the supreme court there, 
or revenue officers, to carry on trade, or pro¬ 
hibits dealing in salt, betel-nut, tobacco, or 
rice, or restrains from trading free merchants, 
free mariners, or others whose covenant shall 
be expired; and so much of 21 George III., 
cap. 65, as prohibits lending money to foreign 
companies, or restrains the court of directors 
from stopping suits for penalties thereby in¬ 
curred ; the Avhole of the 24 George III., 
sess. 2, cap. 25, excepting so much as relates 
to the debts of the Nabob of Arcot, redress 
to native landholders, and such parts as re¬ 
mained in force for the establishment of a 
court of judicature; the whole of 26 George 

111., cap. 16, excepting the repealing clauses; 
and so much of 26 George III., cap. 57, as 
makes offences against the law for securing 
the exclusive trade of the company enforce¬ 
able in the East Indies. It will be observed 
that the subjects of several of the repealed 
enactments form the matter of new enactments 
in this act—as the interdiction of trade to the 
governor - general, governors, members of 
council, judges of the supreme court, and 
revenue officers, and the limitation of the 
trade in salt, betel-nut, tobacco, &c. See 
section 137. Section 147 provides that the 
repeal shall not extend to offences committed 
before the passing of this act; section 148, 
that it should not affect the powers of the 
board previously in existence till a new board 
should be appointed; section 149, that it 
should not affect the powers given by 28 
George III., cap. 8, and 31 George III., 
cap. 10, concerning expenses of additional 
forces in the East Indies; section 150, that 
should not bar actions. 

§ CLI.—Power given to the governor-general in 
council of Fort William, &c., to appoint justices of the 
peace, which said justices not to sit in courts of Oyer 
and Terminer unless called upon. 

The 47 George III., sess. 2, cap. 68, sec. 
6, repeals so much of the above as authorizes 
the governor -general in council to appoint 
justices of the peace for Fort St. George or 
Bombay, that authority being given by sec¬ 
tion 5 to the governor in council of the 

Q Q 



298 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIII. 


respective presidencies. The 2 & 3 William 
IV,, cap. 117, sec. 1, removes the restriction 
as to British inhabitants, and renders eligible 
all persons not subjects of a foreign state. 
By act of government of India, No. 6 of 
1845, the power of issuing separate commis¬ 
sions is given. 

§ CLII.—No person capable of acting as a justice of 
the peace till he has taken the requisite oaths. 

The remaining sections, up to 160, are of 
limited interest, referring to rights and pre¬ 
rogatives of justice and civic regulations of 
the presidential capitals, and acts of the go¬ 
vernment of India unnecessary to introduce 
here. 

§ CLX.—And be it further enacted, that every person 
who shall hereafter be elected a director of the said com¬ 
pany shall, within ten days next after his election, and 
before he shall take that office upon him (save only the ad¬ 
ministering the oath hereinafter mentioned, instead of the 
oath now prescribed to be taken by persons elected direc¬ 
tors of the said company), take the following oath (that 
is say); . . . . which said oath shall be signed by the 
person or persons taking the same, and shall be adminis¬ 
tered by any two of the directors of the said company, who 
also shall sign and attest the same; and in case any person 
so to be elected a director of the said company shall refuse 
or neglect to take the said oath within the time aforesaid, 
his office or place as a director of the said company shall 
become void. 

By 53 George III., cap. 155, sec. 76, the 
year and title of that act were to be inserted 
instead of the year and title of the act by 
which the oath is prescribed; but the 16 
& 17 Victoria, cap. 95, sec. 13, directs 
another form of oath instead of that pre¬ 
viously taken ; and the form given in this act 
is consequently omitted. That in the act of 
Victoria is as follows :— 

“ I, A. B., do swear that I will be faithful to her 
“ majesty Queen Victoria, and will, to the best of 
“my ability, perform the duty assigned to me as a 
“ director of the East India Company, in the admin- 
“ istration of the government of India in trust for 
“the crown.'’ 

Section 161 related to deposits on teas 
bought at the company’s sales; section 162 
limited the time for the commencement of 
proceedings under this act; and section 163 
fixed the date of the commencement of the 
act. 

Having given a general outline of the acts 
which have regulated the constitution of the 
East India Company, the Board of Control, 
the governor-general and council in India, 
and all of these in relation to each other, it 
remains to show the actual working of the 
system. In doing so the provisions of the 
statutes not necessarily brought into notice 
in the review just given, will he referred to 
as occasion arises. 


THE HOME GOVERNMENT. 

The constitution of the board of directors 
has been shown in the foregoing pages. The 
practice, as to the chairman and deputy-chair¬ 
man, is for the directors to elect such annually 
from their own body, but the deputy-chair- 
man of one year is generally the chairman of 
the next, in which capacity he also serves for 
one year. The directors, until 1853, had the 
power vested in them of all ecclesiastical, 
legal, naval, and military appointments. In 
that year, by the act 16 & 17 Victoria, the 
appointments to the civil service were thrown 
open to public competition. The directors 
still have authority to originate all measures 
for the government of India, all grants of 
money at home and in India, also the patron¬ 
age of all ecclesiastical, naval, and military 
appointments. The mode of distributing the 
patronage, is for each director to have an 
equal share, except the chairman and deputy- 
chairman, whose proportions are greater. The 
Board of Control has unconstitutionally in¬ 
truded into this department, and what was 
originally asked as a courtesy, has for some 
time been looked upon as a right. The 
directors nominate general officers, as the staff 
of the company’s army; the superintendent 
of the Indian navy, the master attendant in 
Bengal and in Madras, and volunteers (who 
are appointed in rotation by the directors) 
for the pilot service; officers of the mint, 
such as assay masters; the law officers of the 
presidencies, and the members of the general 
and presidential councils, except the fourth 
member of the general council, who must have 
the sanction of the Board of Control. The 
patronage of appointment to the great offices 
has been shown in the abstracts of the different 
acts relating to Indian government already 
given. The court of directors meet weekly 
(usually on the Wednesday) for the transac¬ 
tion of business, the details of which are con¬ 
ducted by committees. There are four of 
these committees,—the secret; the finance 
and home; the political and military; the 
revenue, judicial, and legislative. 

The functions of the secret committee have 
been indicated in the abstracts already given 
of the different acts legislating for India. It 
is the medium of communication with the 
government in India, and with the Board of 
Control, especially in relation to peace or 
war, the acquisition of territory, and trans¬ 
actions with native princes. The committee 
consists of three members, who are supposed 
to be elected by the rest of the directors, but 
are generally taken ex officio, the chairman, 
deputy-chairman, and senior director, being 
the persons to whom the important trust is 
committed It is questionable whether this 



Chap. XIII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


299 


plan is wise, for although the chairman and 
deputy-chairman have the general confidence 
of the committee, and the senior director will 
be, of course, a man of very great experience, 
yet the nomination to snch an important trust 
by any routine process has its dangers, when 
election by ballot, on the ground of capacity 
alone, ought to determine who should hold 
a charge so responsible. The papers of the 
secret committee are in charge of the ex¬ 
aminer at the India-house, who is also clerk 
to the committee. The other committees 
superintend the departments of government to 
which they are specifically designated. 

The general court, or court of proprietors, 
consists of holders of East India stock. All 
holders of £500 stock are entitled to attend 
the court and speak; all who hold £1000 stock 
have the additional right of voting. The latter 
class now number about eighteen hundred 
persons. The general court assembles quar¬ 
terly. Its powers were once equal to those 
now held by the court of directors, but at 
present they are limited to the following :—• 

1. The election of twelve persons out of the eighteen 
who constitute the court of directors. 

2. Of making bye-laws. 

3. Of making money grants, and of controlling those 
proposed by the directors if exceeding £600 in one sum 
to one person, or £200 per annum. 

4. Of calling for the production of all despatches which 
are not in the custody of the secret committee. 

The East India-house is situated in 
Leadenhall Street, in the city of London, a 
building inferior in architectural pretension, 
and calculated by its long and gloomy cor¬ 
ridors to give a mean idea of a place eminent 
in its associations, and as the seat of a power 
which has decided the destinies of so many 
oriental nations, and bid defiance to the 
greatest states of Europe. The company’s 
establishment in the East India-house consists 
of four departments : the secretary’s, the ex¬ 
aminer’s, the military, and the statistical. 
These are maintained at what must appear 
to be a very small cost compared with the 
vast amount of duties performed, and efficient 
agencies employed. The sum thus expended, 
exclusive of charities, pensioners, and an¬ 
nuities, in connection with them, does not 
exceed £120,000 per annum. 

The Board of Control has its office in 
Cannon Row: its constitution has been already 
shown. None of the officers of the board 
ever attend except “the president,” who 
presides over nothing, the real purport of his 
appointment being to secure to the party 
holding the reins of government for the 
the time being a portion of the rich patronage 
connected with India. One of the members 
of the board is expected to sign papers along 


with “the president.” The real work be¬ 
longs to the directors of the East India Com¬ 
pany, and the effective hindrance to their 
measures has been in “ the president ” or in 
the governor-general of India, appointed for 
the most part for the purpose of gratifying a 
titled and powerful partizan of the existing 
cabinet. Any business done at the board is 
performed by the secretaries, one of whom is 
necessarily a member of parliament, and loses 
his office with the retirement from power of 
the cabinet which confers his appointment. 
The other is a permanent government official, 
who does whatever real work may have to 
be performed, which chiefly consists in rou¬ 
tine records and letters. Each secretary, 
however, professes to attend to three depart¬ 
ments of the control, and each has a staff of 
clerks at his disposal. The president con¬ 
ducts the “ secret ” business in person or by 
letter with the secret committee of the board 
of directors. The cost of the inefficient Board 
of Control has been at least one fourth that 
of the conduct of the vast transactions at the 
India-house. The system of check and 
counter-check in the business transacted be¬ 
tween the two boards is most complicated, 
and the general mode of conducting business 
is rendered, by the spirit of routine pervading 
the Board of Control, tedious and injurious to 
the public service. 

GOVERNMENT IN INDIA. 

The synopsis already given of the different 
statutes contained in Pitt’s bill, or since, in 
acts of George III., William IV., and Vic¬ 
toria, based upon it, have already made the 
reader acquainted with the principles of local 
government in India. In 16 & 17 Victoria 
cap. 95, sec. 22, the governor-general was 
empowered to add two additional members of 
council to the four already composing that 
council, according to the statute, but the right 
has never been exercised. The patronage of 
the governor-general of India is exceedingly 
extensive, important, and valuable. He ap¬ 
points the lieutenant-governor of Bengal and 
of the north-western provinces; all the mili¬ 
tary nominations in Bengal and the north¬ 
western provinces; the judges of the “ sudder ” 
courts; the commissioners in the non-regu¬ 
lation provinces; and the political residents 
in native states. The official staff of the 
governor-general consists of a political secre¬ 
tary to conduct business with native and 
foreign states ; a home secretary, who manages 
judicial and revenue affairs; a financial secre¬ 
tary for the conduct of government finance; 
and a military secretary. The secretaries for 
politics and finance constitute a secret com¬ 
mittee, to which all despatches are trans- 



300 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. YUI. 


rnittcd. and in whose custody all despatches 
remain of a secret nature. The council meets 
at the government-house at Calcutta at least 
once a week. The governor and council 
send a quarterly general letter to the court of 
directors in London, but when important 
business requires, special letters are trans¬ 
mitted. Correspondence between the pre¬ 
sidential governments and the court of direc¬ 
tors is to be forwarded to the governor- 
general in council, but not in extenso —abstracts 
only are necessary. No new office can be 
established without the permission of the 
court of directors in London. Military ex- 
penditui’e can only be incurred in case of 
emergency, without the consent of the com¬ 
mittee of the India-house. The governor- 
general, if not recalled, holds office for five 
years, and receives £25,000 per annum. Each 
member of the council receives £10,000 per 
annum. The presidencies of Madras and 
Bombay are each under governors and coun¬ 
cils of three members. These derive their 
authority from the court of directors; but 
the lieutenant-governors of Bengal and of 
the north-west provinces, derive theirs from 
the governor-general of India. This may be 
seen in previous pages, but is here stated to 
keep before the reader a clear and general 
view of Indian government. 

The provisions shown in the acts of par¬ 
liament referred to for the government of 
the presidencies prohibit their governors and 
councils appointing any officers. This law 
was found impracticable. Reference could 
not be made from Madras and Bombay for 
every appointment to offices of customs or 
excise, and various other services of necessity 
arising from time to time. It became neces¬ 
sary to make an arrangement in India which 
would practically relax the stringency of the 
law. Periodical returns are made to Calcutta 
from Madras and Bombay of all appointments 
made in the interim, and these receive formal 
sanction at government-house. The gover¬ 
nors and councils of the presidencies usually 
meet weekly, and have secretaries correspond¬ 
ing to those of the general government at 
Calcutta. The mode of transacting business 
at the chief seat of authority is more uniform 
than at Bombay or Madras. The lieutenant- 
governor of the north-west provinces exer¬ 
cises a patronage similar to that of the gover¬ 
nors and councils in Bombay and Madras. 
If a servant is suspended or dismissed by the 
presidential governments, such dismission is 
subject to appeal to the directors. A certain 
amount of military patronage in India is also 
divided between the governor and the com¬ 
mander-in-chief. The former appoints to 
such offices as are connected with finance and 


have civil relations — such as the military 
auditor-general, the military accountant, the 
paymasters and commissaries; the commander- 
in-chief appoints the adjutant-general, the 
quarter-master-general, and minor officers of 
a strictly military nature. The presidential 
governors and commanders-in-chief exercise 
their patronage respectively and relatively 
upon the model of that of the governor-general 
and general commanding-in-cliief. 

THE CIVIL SERVICE. 

The collection of the revenue, and the 
administration of justice, are committed to 
the civil servants. Sometimes judicial and 
fiscal functions are united in the duties of the 
same official. The covenant made by the 
civil servants has been given in a former 
page; also the class from which the covenanted 
servants are selected. These civil servants— 
who may be either European or native, who 
have undergone no previous training, and who 
form no covenant with the company, but are 
employed as ordinary officials are usually 
employed by all public bodies—are called 
“uncovenanted servants.” Public compe¬ 
tition determines who shall be in the company’s 
covenanted service since the act* passed for 
the dissolution of the company’s civil col¬ 
lege at Haileybury. The examiners of can¬ 
didates for the covenanted department of the 
eivil service are appointed by the Board of 
Control, under the act 16 & 17 Victoria, cap. 95. 
In 1855 regulations were promulgated by 
the board to the effect that two examinations 
of candidates should take place. The first in 
ancient and modern languages, mathematics, 
Arabic, and Sanscrit: the second in law,. 
Indian history, and political economy. An 
interval of a year to take place between the 
two examinations. Various causes have con¬ 
tributed to prevent the operations of these 
regulations so far as the second examination 
is concerned. The following regulations are 
issued by the board :— 

REGULATIONS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF CANDIDATES 
FOR THE CIVIL SERVICE. 

1. Any natural-born subject of her majesty who shall 
be desirous of entering the civil service of the company, 
will be entitled to be examined at such examination, pro¬ 
vided he shall, on or before the 1st of May, 1855, have 
transmitted to the board of commissioners : — 

(a) A certificate of his age being above eighteen years 

and under twenty-three years. 

(b) A certificate, signed by a physieian or surgeon, of 

his having no disease, constitutional affection, or 
bodily infirmity, unfitting him for the civil service 
of the company. 

(■ c ) A certificate of good moral character, signed by the 
head of the school or college at which he has last 
received his education; or, if he has not received 


18 & 19 Victoria, cap. 53, 





Cuap. XIII.J 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


education at any school or college since the year 
1852, then such proof of good moral character as 
may be satisfactory to the board of commissioners. 
( d ) A. statement of those branches of knowledge herein¬ 
after enumerated, in which he desires to be exa¬ 
mined. 

2. The examination will take place in the following 
branches of knowledge :— 

English Language and Literature:— marks. 

Composition. 500 

English Literature and History, including 

that of the Laws and Constitution .... 1000 


1500 


Language, Literature, and History of Greece . 750 

„ „ „ Rome . 750 

„ „ „ France . 375 

„ „ „ Germany 375 

„ „ „ Italy . . 375 

Mathematics, pure and mixed.1000 

Natural Science, that is, Chemistry, Electri¬ 
city, and Magnetism, Natural History, 

Geology, and Mineralogy. 500 

Moral Sciences, that is. Logic, Mental, Moral, 

and Political Philosophy. 500 

Sanscrit Language and Literature. 375 

Arabic Language and Literature. 375 


6875 

3. The merit of the persons examined will be estimated 
by marks, according to the ordinary system in use at 
several of the universities, and the numbers set opposite 
to each branch in the preceding paragraph denote the 
greatest number of marks that can be obtained in re¬ 
spect of it. 

4. No candidate will be allowed any marks in respect 
of any subject of examination unless he shall, in the 
opinion of the examiners, possess a competent knowledge 
of that subject. 

5. The examination will be conducted by means of 
printed questions and written answers, and by vivrf voce 
examination, as the examiners may deem necessary. 

6. After the examination shall have been completed, 
the examiners shall add up the marks obtained by each 
candidate in respect of each of the subjects in which he 
6hall have been examined, and shall set forth, in order of 
merit, the names of the twenty candidates who shall have 
obtained a greater number of marks than any of the re¬ 
maining candidates; and such twenty candidates shall 
be deemed to be selected candidates for the civil service 
of the East India Company. Their choice of the pre¬ 
sidency in India to which they shall be appointed shall 
be determined by the order in which they stand on such 
list. 

7. In August, 1856, and August, 1857, further exa¬ 
minations of the selected candidates will take place by 
examiners appointed by the board of commissioners for 
the affairs of India in the following subjects:— 


MARKS. 


Law, including the ordinary rules of taking 
Evidence, and the Mode of conducting civil 

and criminal trials. 

The History of India. 

Political Economy. 

Any Language of India in which the selected 
candidate shall have given notice of his 
desire to be examined. 


1000 

400 

400 


200 


and such further examinations will be conducted in the 
same manner as that above described. (The numbers 
set opposite to each subject denote the greatest number 
of marks which can be obtained in respect of such sub¬ 
jects.) 

8. Each selected candidate, desirous of being examined 


801 

at either of the further examinations of 1856 and 1857, 
shall, two months previously to such examination, trans¬ 
mit to the board of commissioners for the affairs of 
India a statement mentioning the language or languages 
of India in which he is desirous of being examined. 

9. Any selected candidate who, having been examined 
at the further examination of 1856, shall not have passed, 
may, nevertheless, be again examined at the further exa¬ 
mination of 1857. 

10. Any selected candidate who shall not have passed 
at one or the other of the further examinations of 1856 
and 1857, shall be struck off the list of selected can¬ 
didates. 

11. The selected candidates, who, at either of such 
further examinations shall be deemed by the examiners 
to have a competent knowledge of law, the history of 
India, political economy, and at least one language of 
India, shall be adjudged to have passed, and to be entitled 
to be appointed to the civil service of the East India 
Company; and the names of the selected candidates who 
shall have so passed shall be placed in a list in the order 
of their merit iu such examinations, estimated as above 
by the total number of marks which they shall have ob¬ 
tained in respect of all the subjects in which they shall 
have been examined at such examination. 

12. The seniority in the civil service of the East India 
Company of the selected candidates, shall be determined 
by the date of the further examination at which they 
shall be judged to have passed; and so between those 
who have passed at the same further examination, their 
security in such civil service shall be determined accord¬ 
ing to the order in which they stand on the list, resulting 
from such examinations. 

13. No person will ever after such examinations be 
allowed to proceed to India until he shall comply with 
the regulations in force at the time for the civil service 
of the East India Company, and shall be of sound bodily 
health, and good moral character. 

India Board, 

January , 1855. 

When the single examination (now made 
to suffice, contrary to the promulgated regu¬ 
lations) has taken place, the young men are 
sent out, as fast as they are required, to the 
respective governments for which it is pre¬ 
sumed they are best adapted, or which is in 
the greatest need of their services. Those 
intended for Bengal, the north-west pro¬ 
vinces, and other districts under the general 
government, are sent to Calcutta, where they 
are subjected to a further course of study, 
after which an examination takes place as to 
their progress in the native languages. The 
college at Fort William is the place where 
these additional preparations for official life 
are made. At Bombay and Madras there are 
no colleges for preparing the civil servants in 
the native languages. There are, however, 
certain teachers appointed for the purpose. 
Every successful candidate is entitled to some 
office, although not immediately nominated. 
After they arrive in India, and while pur¬ 
suing the preparatory studies which are con¬ 
ducted there, the candidates receive a certain 
stipend, called “ out-of-employ allowance,” 
amounting to £400 a-year. When the exa¬ 
minations have terminated at Calcutta, the 














302 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[CiiAr. XIII. 


candidates are nominated as assistants to 
magistrates and collectors, and are sent into 
“ the Mofussil.” * Before the assistants can 
enter the regular grades of the service, they 
must submit to two examinations : the first in 
the vernacular languages, or chiefly in those; 
the second in criminal and fiscal law, super - 
added to which is another examination in the 
vernacular tongues. When recognised as 
having entered the regular service, the civil 
officer is engaged in fiscal and magisterial 
duties, in a subordinate manner, and in such 
cases as superior officers may prescribe. 

The regulations of the company’s college at 
Calcutta have been unsparingly censured by 
various writers—such as Capper, in his work 
entitled The Three Presidencies of India, 
and Campbell, in his Modern British India. 
According to these and other authors who 
have written with less impartiality than zeal 
against the government of India, the students 
spend several years of idleness at Calcutta, 
spending at a rate far beyond their incomes, 
and burdening themselves for many sub¬ 
sequent yearn with the payment of heavy 
instalments of their debts. It is alleged that 
these young men bear themselves haughtily 
to their superiors, relying on their interest at 
home to uphold their position. The amount 
of testimony against the proficiency of the 
young men at Calcutta, and indeed at Bom¬ 
bay and Madras, is too extensive and respect¬ 
able to be overlooked. It is alleged., on the 
other hand, that men of great attainments 
themselves, expect too much from these young 
men, and that while stricter regulations and 
examinations ought to ensure proficiency 
before the student receives the office of 
“ writer,” yet, on the whole, the attainments 
made are respectable, and the general career 
of those who serve the company is creditable. 

After several years, during which every 
facility is afforded to the civilian to become 
experienced in office, and well acquainted 
with the people, he is recognised as a can¬ 
didate for promotion. A fresh examination 
must be passed in the languages and institu¬ 
tions of the country. If this issue in a satis¬ 
factory manner, he is qualified for the offices 
of magistrate or collector. 

The magistrates attend to police and the 
cognizance of whatever relates to criminals. 
Appeals from their decisions may be made to 
the judges of sessions. The collector takes 
charge of the district treasury, and collects 
the revenue, having large powers for enforc¬ 
ing his legal demands. Certain magisterial 
and judicial powers are entrusted to the col¬ 
lector ; he settles by summary process dis¬ 
putes about rent and landed property among 
* The country as distinct from the capital. 


the agricultural community. The different 
presidencies have different rules of procedure, 
as well as different regulations of official rank 
and functions. In Bengal the office of judge, 
magistrate, and collector, are held by three 
distinct persons. In the north-west pro¬ 
vinces, Bombay, and Madras, officers of one 
class are both magistrates and collectors; 
those of another class are judges. In the 
non-regulation provinces civil officers of one 
class hold all three offices. 

Promotion goes generally by seniority; 
but when the secretary reports that a vacant 
office requires peculiar fitness in the occu¬ 
pant, he also names those among the legal 
claimants whom he considers in possession of 
the qualifications, and the governor usually 
selects that person, but may of his own 
knowledge fix upon some one else more 
adapted in his opinion to the post. This 
plan is calculated to ensure the promotion of 
talent, but it also opens up the way to interest 
and favouritism. Selection, in contradistinc¬ 
tion to seniority, does not often prevail, ex¬ 
cept in the very highest offices. 

Lord Cornwallis introduced a practice 
which is radically at variance with the con¬ 
stitution of the civil service,, but which has 
prevailed ever since the governor-generalship 
of that nobleman. This practice is the em¬ 
ployment of military men in civil offices. 
They are especially selected for their real or 
ostensible adaptation to the discharge of par¬ 
ticular duties. They are chiefly employed as 
political agents in foreign courts, or the ad¬ 
ministration of police and magisterial affairs 
in unsettled districts. When civil servants 
properly qualified could not be obtained, 
military men have been appointed to the 
ordinary civil offices even in the regulation 
provinces. The proportion of military to 
civil officers employed in diplomatic situa¬ 
tions is as one to two; but taking all classes 
of situations and all parts of our Indian empire 
into account, the proportion of military to 
civilians is probably three to two. This 
fashion of employing military men in civil 
offices has been of great detriment to the 
military service, although probably of no 
disadvantage generally, and of great advan¬ 
tage in many cases to the civil administration. 
It is not improbable that the mutiny of 1857 
would not have been attempted had not this 
predominating influence of the military over 
the civilians grown to such a head in the civil 
department. The regiments were denuded 
of experienced and efficient officers. The 
“pick and cull” of the army was withdrawn 
for civil services. Knowledge of the native 
languages constituting one of the chief quali¬ 
fications for the office of a civilian, officers 



Chap. XIII.J 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


303 


thus endowed were withdrawn from their i 
regiments, leaving those behind them least 
qualified to communicate with the men. 
Besides, the number of officers generally in 
regiments was extremely deficient from this 
cause. The covenanted civil officers receive 
salaries varying from £40 per month to more 
than twenty times that amount, paid in 
rupees. 

The duties of a collector are very nume¬ 
rous, and the sphere of his supervision very 
extensive. An area equal to two average 
English counties may be considered the ordi¬ 
nary “beat’’ of a collector. Over this during 
many months of the year he passes on his 
duties, in which he superintends the work 
performed by his assistants, the uncovenanted 
servants. Business in the early part of the 
day is often very severe upon the collector, 
as the crafty natives then press upon him 
with their claims, complaints, and references, 
in the hope that he will be more placable 
just as he begins his day than when his 
wearied mind and body have passed through 
the greater portion of his diurnal toil. The 
salary of a collector is about £233 per 
month. 

At the end of ten years the civilian is 
entitled to a three years’ furlough; but if he 
makes this available, he will, on his return, 
find his post filled, and he must await his 
turn to procure another. During his absence 
in Eui’ope he is allowed £500 a year. He 
may obtain leave to Ceylon, the Cape, Aus¬ 
tralia, the Mauritius, and some other places, 
and retain one-third of his pay, and without 
resigning his appointment. At the end of 
twenty-two years’ service he may retire upon 
£1000 a year, having subscribed four per 
cent, upon his income in the meantime to the 
annuity fund, and a further small per-centage 
to the widow and orphan fund. 

Bv very many writers the average ability 
of the collector and magistrates is represented 
as below mediocrity; and that although 
men of great ability have been numbered 
among them, yet the vast majority lose in 
their isolated positions that stimulus for the 
acquisition of knowledge which competition 
in the crowd of European life supplies. It is 
alleged that the zeal at first shown to master 
the details of their own duties gradually 
passes away, and the collector does little, 
leaving to his subordinates all real labour, 
until ho becomes unacquainted with the state 
of his district, and imperfectly versed in the 
application of the principles of administration. 
There can, however, be no doubt that within 
the last few years a more general tone of effi¬ 
ciency has sprung up, and that in the north¬ 
west, and throughout the non-regulation pro¬ 


vinces, a vigorous administration has been 
carried out. 

The uncovenanted civil servants are com¬ 
posed of both Europeans and natives. The 
Europeans are chiefly selected from those 
who have gone out to India in some other 
calling, and the sons of commissioned officers. 
They do not generally attain to the higher 
offices, and are not entitled to the furlough 
after ten years’ service; but sometimes high 
interest, or peculiar qualifications, lead to 
their advancement, and furloughs have been 
granted as an especial mark of favour. They 
are not, according to the rule, entitled to 
pensions, but have sometimes received them. 
There are many half-caste men among the 
uncovenanted servants. These, with the 
Europeans employed, according to Capper, 
amounted, in 1853, to nearlv three thousand 
persons. 

Lord William Bentinek conceived the idea 
of employing the natives as uncovenanted 
servants ; and his lordship contemplated it on 
a scale of magnitude and liberality that would 
have introduced great numbers of this class 
to the offices for which they might be deemed 
eligible. So far as bis scheme has been car¬ 
ried out, it has promoted the convenience of 
magistrates and collectors, but has not con¬ 
duced to the better government of India, the 
better administration of local affairs, the im¬ 
partial administration of justice, or the welfare 
of the people. Abuses, which have furnished 
a theme for agitation against the company, 
have grown up under this system. The 
native is ever ready to wrong the native. 
He will do so to please his employer, to exact 
a bribe, to gratify his personal animosity, or 
to show his distaste to a rival religion ox- 
race. The hardships inflicted by native 
agents of all classes everywhere in India, 
but more especially in Madras, are numerous, 
often appalling, and generally beyond the 
correction or prevention of the European 
officer's. The system of torture practised 
in Madras by these native officers has brought 
much opprobrium on the government, which 
never countenanced the crime, and did its best 
to prevent it. Frequently where the European 
officer supposed the evil suppressed it w?as 
still continued. The native officers will lie, 
commit perjury, cheat, accept bribes, inflict 
the grossest injustice, and the most bi'utal 
cruelties, in the name of the company. The 
scheme of Lord William Bentinek, however, 
met the approbation of the government and 
parliament at home, and their sanction was 
given to it by 3 & 4 William IV., cap. 
85 sec. 85. The result of this statute has 
been that nearly all the inferior offices of 
justice are in the hands of the natives. There 





;oi 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIII. 


are seven hundred native judges in India.* 
The decisions of many of these inflict great 
injury upon the cause of justice and discredit 
upon the company. The collectors in several 
departments of the revenue are frequently 
natives, numbering altogether twelve hundred 
persons, f 

It may surprise most readers of this Plistory 
to learn that the most useful class of native 
employes is that of medical assistants. The 
sub-assistant surgeon of districts, and the 
“native doctor” in regiments, are very useful 
persons, showing a practical aptitude for 
detecting diseases, which experience supplies 
where scientific diagnosis is not possible. As 
helpers to the British medical officers they 
are invaluable; but the directors claim for 
them a higher position, as appears from the 
following statement of the court, laid before 
parliament:—“ In addition to the institutions 
for giving a general education to the different 
classes of the community, either through 
English or the vernacular, colleges or schools 
for several branches of professional education 
are maintained at the different presidencies 
(of the engineering colleges mention has 
already been made). Medical schools had 
from an early period been maintained at alt 
the presidencies, to train persons for employ¬ 
ment in the subordinate branches of the 
medical service—as compounders, dressers, 
native doctors, &c. These institutions were 
gradually raised in character, and for many 
years past have held the rank of colleges, in 
which medical education of a first-class cha¬ 
racter is afforded. They have, in conse¬ 
quence, received the ‘ recognition’ of the Col¬ 
lege of Surgeons in London; and the gra¬ 
duates of these colleges are entitled to all 
privileges which are conferred by the College 
of Surgeons on the members of the colonial 
medical institutions recognized by them. The 
graduates almost invariably enter the service 
of government, though some few, especially 
at Bombay, prefer private practice. To afford 
encouragement to the graduates of the col¬ 
leges, and meet the want of well-qualified 
medical officers for the service of government, 
a special native medical service has been 
created, under the title of sub-assistant sur¬ 
geons, for which a degree in one of the medi¬ 
cal colleges of India is a necessary qualifica¬ 
tion. These officers are divided into three 
grades, promotion being regulated by the 
joint consideration of length of service and 
professional qualification, as ascertained by 
special examination. The principal use which 
has been made of this class has been in con¬ 
nection with the government dispensaries; 
but some few have been appointed to the 
* Mills. f Ibid. 


charge of the smaller stations. Their profes¬ 
sional qualifications are, in many cases, of a 
high order ; and the triumph which has been 
effected over the religious prejudices of the 
natives, in popularizing the dissection of dead 
bodies, is a proof that this indirect mode of 
correcting their superstitions, by the influence 
of useful knowledge, is a highly effectual 
one.” 

In humble offices—-such as police agents 
and inferior servants of revenue—the number 
of natives is very great. Forty thousand, 
according to Arthur Mills, Esq., M.P., were 
thus employed in Bengal alone in 1853, their 
average pay being the small sum of twenty 
rupees per month, which, however, is, in 
the esteem of a native, a considerable amount. 
According to the same authority, there were 
a hundred and seventy thousand watchmen 
in the lower provinces. 

The salaries paid to the better classes of 
the uncovenanted servants range from £100 
per annum up to £900. A native who lately 
presided in the “small-cause court” in Cal¬ 
cutta received £1560 per annum.* The Mo¬ 
hammedans are most patronised by the Indian 
authorities, but Hindoos also, in an inferior 
degree, hold important posts. A Parsee pre¬ 
sides over the factory at Bombay, and has 
Europeans serving under him. f It is sur¬ 
prising that the Parsees are not more fre¬ 
quently employedthey are the most upright 
among the natives, have most real respect for 
Europeans, united with more dignity, probity, 
independence, loyalty,' and intelligence. 

It is alleged that there are now in Calcutta 
many natives who have risen from the meanest 
officers of police by money-lending, the money 
having been obtained by peculation and bri¬ 
bery, and that these persons not unfrequently 
have their former masters as their debtors. 
Extortion and oppression prevail everywhere, 
through the instrumentality of the native 
employes, in spite of the company and its 
European officers, who are gradually becom¬ 
ing simply the supervisors of the native offi¬ 
cials, upon whom devolve all the labour, and 
who are almost solely brought into close con¬ 
tact with the native population. 

The constitution and history of the govern¬ 
ment of India were well described by an emi¬ 
nent statesman as “a great empire carrying- 
on subordinately a great commerce—a state 
in the disguise of a merchant.” | 

While these sheets are going through the 
press the country is agitated by a discussion 
of the question—“ How shall India in future 
be governed?” The commons of England 
has affirmed the extinction of the East India 

* krthur Mills, Esq., M.P. f Ibid. 

% Edmund Burke. 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


306 


Chap. XIII.] 

Company, but lias not yet agreedupon any other 
form of government as a substitute. Lord Pal¬ 
merston, as head of the government dissolved 
in the beginning of this year, brought forward 
a measure which received a large support, 
and provoked an extensive opposition,, espe¬ 
cially beyond the walls of parliament. The 
government of the Earl of Derby, which suc¬ 
ceeded that of Lord Palmerston, brought for¬ 
ward another measure, more complicated, but 
more popular, or, at least,, more specious in a, 
popular sense. These two measures are still 
before the legislature and the country, and 
the issue of the discussion must be reserved 
for another chapter. 

It is impossible not to concur with a state¬ 
ment made by Mr. Mangles in the house, that 
the company have rendered great services to. 
the country,, and, on the whole,, governed 
India well. Nor is it possible to refuse con¬ 
currence to the statement of Colonel Sykes, 
also made from his place in the legislature, 
that the company have maintained in India a 
better government than that of any con¬ 
tinental power in Europe. The language of 
Henry Thoby Prinsep, Esq., one. of the ablest 
of the present directors, is just ;—“ We have 
kept the country, and governed it for a hun¬ 
dred years, with honour to England, and 
benefit to India.”' Such facts ought not, and 
must not, be lost sight of in any new arrange¬ 
ments, nor in the estimate which the country 
forms of the character and history of the East 
India Company. The improvements de¬ 
manded for India by this country have in some 
instances been anticipated by the directors 
or the local, government of India, and in 
other cases responded to by a prompt adop¬ 
tion of what general opinion declared necessary. 
In some instances the company have yielded 
to the public voice what, if better instructed 
on Indian affairs, the people of England would 
not have desired. Difficulties in India, aris¬ 
ing from concessions upon which the will of 
England was strongly set, but which, in them¬ 
selves, were unwise or inopportune, and in 
some cases unjust, have undoubtedly arisen. 
Within the last few years great strides in the 
direction of improvement have been made. 
The settlement of the Punjaub has assumed 
a most satisfactory issue. Scinde presents 
an aspect of good government, pleasing as 
it is instructive. As shown on a former 
page, the native tribes along the whole line 
of the Affghan and Beloochee frontiers of the 
Punjaub and Scinde have been tamed down 
by the justice, wisdom, firmness, and adminis¬ 
trative aptitude, happily blended in the policy 
and mental qualities of the men to whom the 
directors wisely committed the task. In the 
hill countries of Central India, along the 

VOL. i. 


ranges of ghauts, and in those wild jungles or 
desert districts on the frontiers of independent 
states, lawless hordes have been trained to in¬ 
dustry, and hands which had been expert only in 
wielding the weapons of hostility, have already 
become skilful in the use of the implements of 
peace. It would be no exaggeration, and 
scarcely a figure of speech,to say that the spear 
has been turned into the pruning-hook, and the 
sword converted ta the ploughshare. That 
such results have not been everywhere accom¬ 
plished is not more true than that everywhere 
some progress is made towards their realiza¬ 
tion, The great mutiny has not at all ob¬ 
structed this, process over a large area of 
country, and it will ultimately even open 
up facilities for the speedier achievement of 
civilisation, by the new instrumentalities 
which it will certainly call into life, and 
the more vivid impression of the prestige 
of British power which victory will create. 
“ The general result of all these improvements 
in administration, combined with the security 
which our rule has for the first time given to 
property against the ravages of war and fiscal 
rapacity, has been a great and rapid growth of 
general prosperity.” * Whatever be the issue 
of the discussion now penetrating the country, 
it is certain, that in any seheme for the future, 
“ an intermediate, non-political, and perfectly 
independent body, in concurrence with her 
majesty’s government, is an indispensable 
necessity, without which there can be no 
absolute security for good government.” f 

No circumstance in the history of the com¬ 
pany has perhaps given so much offence to 
the English people as the alleged disposition 
to discourage native Christians, and debar 
them from office. During the recent parlia¬ 
mentary and public discussions on this sub¬ 
ject papers were moved for in the commons 
in reference to a Hindoo convert to Chris¬ 
tianity in a native regiment at Meerut, an 
event which occurred a considerable number 
of years ago. The correspondence discloses 
the spirit of the government at that time, 
and which has too much characterised it 
since. A Major Boye, who commanded the 
battalion in which the occurrence of the con¬ 
version took place, made a formal complaint 
that the clergyman baptised the convert 
without his (the major’s) consent! The man 
was removed from the regiment by order of 
the governor in council, the event having 
filled the council with “ consternation.” The 
whole tone of the correspondence, with many 
other incidents, show that no efforts were 

* Memorandum of the Improvements in the Adminis¬ 
tration of India. 

f Address of the Court of Directors to Lord Pal¬ 
merston. 


a r 



306 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIII. 


made to accustom the soldiery to the idea 
that they had a right to become what they 
pleased as to religious profession, without fear 
of molestation or disfavour; there was no 
effort made to lead the men to regard it as a 
right, that they ought jealously to claim. 

Another of the most fertile causes of dis¬ 
satisfaction with the company in England has 
been the prohibition of Europeans from hold¬ 
ing land on any account whatever. It is not 
here necessary to review this fact as a feature 
of policy. The company was undoubtedly 
jealous of the energy, enterprise, and inde¬ 
pendence which English settlers would display, 
and the intrusion into the government of 
India which a considerable British population, 
having a permanent interest in the country, 
would be sure to' make. At the same time it 
was the belief of “ the old Indians,” that the 
settlement of foreigners would arouse the 
prejudices and nationality of the natives, and 
provoke insurrection. It is passing strange 
that if the.natives have learned submission 
to Europeans as conquerors, bowing to their 
authority, and surrendering revenues from 
the land, that the people would be less 
willing to offer homage when the European 
element in the country was strengthened. 
The company discouraged the colonization of 
India, from the belief that it was impractic¬ 
able, the characteristics of the climate being 
unfavourable. A few elevated situations would 
furnish opportunities for English culture, but, 
except as planters of indigo, sugar, and rice, 
by the sole instrumentality of native labour, 
the settlement of Europeans as agriculturists 
is generally impossible. Even in the hill dis¬ 
tricts “the hill fever,” and other diseases, 
would sweep away Europeans who ventured 
to locate themselves. 

This chapter cannot be more appropriately 
closed than by a list of the governors-general 
of India, and of the presidents of the Board 
of Control, brought down to the present time. 
These lists will be useful for reference in other 
portions of the History. The following are 
the names of those who have held office as 
governors-general and administrators of India, 
with the dates of their appointment: those 
prior to the act of 1773 having been styled 
“administrators;” those between 1773 and 
the act of 1833, “ governors-general of Fort 
William;” those from 1833 to the present 
time, “ governors-general of India in council.” 

Alexander Dawson, January 27, 1748. 

"William Fytche, January 8, 1752. 

Roger Drake, August 8, 1752. 

Colonel Robert Clive, March 25, 1758. 

Henry Vansittart, November 23, 1759. 

John Spencer, November 26, 1764. 

Lord Clive (second time), Jo^e 1, 1764. 


Harry Verelst, January 26, 1767. 

John Cartier, December 16, 1769. 

Warren Hastings, April 25, 1771. 

John Macpherson (provisionally), February 1, 1785. 

Lord Macartney, July, 1785 (declined office). 

Lord Cornwallis, February 24, 1786. 

Major-general W. Meadows, April 28, 1790. 

Sir John Shore (Lord Teignmouth), September 19,1792. 
Sir Alured Clarke (provisionally), September 20, 1797- 
Lord Momington (Marquis of Wellesley), October 4, 
1797. 

Marquis Cornwallis (second time), January 9, 1805. 
Died October 6. 

Sir George H. Barlow (appointment revoked by his ma¬ 
jesty), February 19, 1806. 

Lord Minto, July 9, 1806. 

Earl of Moira (Marquis of Hastings), November 18, 
1812. 

George Canning, March 27, 1822 (declined office). 
William, Lord Amherst, October 23, 1822. 

W. B. Bayley (provisionally), March 23, 1828. 

Lord William Bentinck, March 13, 1828. 

William, Lord Heytesbury (appointment revoked by his 
majesty), January 28, 1835. 

Sir Charles Metcalfe (provisionally), March 20, 1835. 
George, Lord Auckland, August 12, 1836. 

Edward, Lord Ellenborough (revoked by court of direc¬ 
tors, May 1, 1844), October 20, 1841. 

W. W. Bird (provisionally), 1844. 

Sir Henry Hardinge (Viscount Hardinge), May 6, 1844. 
James Andrew, Marquis of Dalhousie, August 4, 1847. 
Charles John, Viscount Canning, July, 1855. 

The following are the names of those who 
have held the office of president of the board 
of commissioners for the affairs of India since 
its constitution in 1784:— 

Thomas, Lord Sydney, September 3, 1784. 

Right Hon. W. Wyndham Grenville, March 12, 1790. 
Right Hon. Henry Dundas, June 28,1793. 

George, Viscount Lewisham, May 19, 1801. 

Robert, Viscount Castlereagh, July 12, 1802. 

Gilbert, Lord Minto, February 12, 1806. 

Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, July 16, 1806. 

Right Hon. George Tierney, October 1, 1806. 

Right Hon. Robert Dundas, April 6, 1807. 

Dudley, Earl of Harrowby, July 16, 1807. 

Right Hon. Robert Dundas (second time), November 13, 
1809. . 

Robert, Earl of Buckinghamshire, April 7, 1812. 

Right Hon. George Canning, June 20, 1816. 

Right Hon. Charles Bathurst, July 16, 1821. 

Right Hon. C. Watkin Williams Wynn, July 8, 1822. 
Robert Dundas, Viscount ..Melville, February 7, 1828. 
Edward, Lord Ellenborough, April 24, 1828. 

Right Hon. Charles Grant, December 6, 1830. 

Edward, Lord Ellenborough (second time), December 20, 

1834. 

Right Hon. Sir John Cam Hobhouse, Bart., April 29, 

1835. 

Edward, Lord Ellenborough (third time), April 9, 1841. 
W. F. Fitzgerald, Jjord Fitzgerald and Vesci, October 28, 
1841. 

Frederic J., Earl of Ripon, May 23, 1843. 

Sir John Cam Hobhouse, Lord Broughton (second time), 
July 10, 1846. 

Right Hon. Fox Maule, February 5, 1852. 

Right Hou. J. C. Herries, February 27, 1852. 

Right Hon. Sir Charles Wood, Bart., December 28,185*. 
Right Hou. R. Vernon Smith, 1855. 

Edward, Lord Ellenborough (fourth time), February, 
1858. 



Chat. XIV.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


307 


CHAPTER XIV. 

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE BRITISH INDIAN EMPIRE ( Continued ). 


REVENUE. 

One of the most important subjects connected 
with government must of course be revenue; 
it is not only “ the sinews of war,” but the 
sinews of peace. The mode in which the 
revenue of a government is obtained is a test 
of its civilization. 

The principles of taxation adopted in India 
are of Hindoo origin, although most writers 
attribute them to the Mohammedan con¬ 
querors. They systematized, but nearly 
all their schemes were based on the ancient 
customs which they found in, existence. 
Various modifications have been introduced 
by the British, as circumstances arose to 
require them, and the result is the existing 
systems of the Honourable East India Com¬ 
pany. 

The taxation of the people of British 
India is computed at about five shillings per 
head, while in the British Isles more than 
ten times that amount is paid. In India 
about seventy per cent, of the entire taxation 
falls upon the agricultural portion of the com- 
munity. 

There are three chief boards of revenue— 
those of Bengal, the north-western provinces, 
and Madras. In Bombay there is a revenue 
commission. The country is divided into 
revenue divisions, which are under the charge 
of officers, whose chief, and sometimes exclu¬ 
sive, functions, are the collection and regula¬ 
tion of the revenue. 

The revenue year ends on the 30th of 
April, and therefore the amount received in 
1857-8 is not yet reported in detail. For 
1856-7 it was as follows :— 

Land revenue.£16,682,908 

Opium. 4,487,269 

Salt. 2,362,308 

Customs. 2,029,270 

All other sources of revenue, com¬ 
prising stamps, post-office, sayer, 
abkaree, mint, marine, pilotage, 
judicial electric telegraph receipts, 
subsidies from native states, and 
miscellaneous. 

Total. £29,167,457 

When the vast area of territory, and the 
great resources of the country, are considered, 
this sum is beneath what ought to be derived, 
without hardship to the population, if the 
scheme adopted was in harmony with econo¬ 
mical science. 

A comparative view of the revenue of the 


past fiscal year wfith that of 1852-3 will throw 
additional light on the subject. 





to 

© 




c3 

Source of revenue. 

CD- 

d 

£ 1 

<X> 

& 

d 

0 > 

% *-£ "c 

° O CD 

-*J D O 

c -s 2 
S' 2 § 
2s § 

® c St 


0 2 

£ 

Oip, 

O »-< 


£ 

£ 



Land revenue. 

Excise and moturpha . 

15,178,676 

1,088,254 

| 13,551,752 

101 

581 

Opium. 

4,562,586 

3,358,684 

2,703,752 

26^ 

145 

Salt. 

3,189,214 

15 

Ilf 

Customs. 

946,561 

816,074 

13£ 

3f 

Stamps, fees, and fines. 

693,982 

115,000 

590,169 

88,448 

4 

23 

n 

i 

Post-office, mint, and 

other, sources .... 

1,979,041* 

1,979,041 

t 

8 i 

Total. 

27,753,314 

23,067,920 




The three principal sources of finance upon 
which the government draws are land, opium, 
and salt. Land is the greatest of all, and 
shall, therefore receive notice first. 

Before giving a general view of the system 
of laud revenue, it is necessary to explain 
the meaning of some terms. 

The word zemindar is Persian, and means 
“landholder.” . It w r as originally given to the 
Hindoo chiefs, who held hereditary posses¬ 
sion. The Moguls applied the name to 
officers appointed to collect revenue, and to 
receive for themselves a certain per-centage. 
When land in British India is said to be held 
under the zemindar system, it is intended to 
be understood that tenants cultivate it under 
a landlord who stands between them and the 
government. The landlord may be a here¬ 
ditary chief, or a village corporation, or a 
district officer, but he is a middleman between 
the people and the government. 

The ryot system expresses the fact that the 
cultivator is the proprietor; he is immediately 
the tenant of the government. 

The middlemen of India are found under 
various designations —polygars and moota- 
dars of Madras ; the dessayes and mozumdars 
of Gujerat; the deshmooks of the Deccan and 
Bombay ; the talookdars of the Moguls, &c. 

Proprietors and headmen are variously 
called —zemindars in Bengal and the north¬ 
western provinces ; bhumyas in Rajpootana ; 
potails in Malwa, Gujerat, and the Deccan; 
merrassidars in the Carnatic; vellalers in 

* Of this sum £566,694 are receipts from native states 
towards the support of British troops for their pro¬ 
tection. 

f Cost of collection charged against general revenues, 
and Said to be equal to the gross amount collected ; actual 
i net revenue from these would therefore be nil. 


| 3,605,702 


























808 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


Chap. XIV 


the southern peninsula; and patteedars in 
the Punjaub. 

The security and contentment of the people 
of India mainly depend upon the administra¬ 
tion of justice and the regulation of the 
revenue. “ The manner in which the entire 
economical condition of nearly the whole 
population is determined by the management 
of the revenue department cannot, by persons 
unacquainted with India, be understood 
without especial explanation.” * Throughout 
the greater part of India there is no inter¬ 
mediate landlord between the cultivator and 
the government. The rent is not paid to a 
landlord who has no claim upon the taxes. 
The rent and taxes are identical, or at all 
events the assessment of the one regulates 
the other, the government being the possessor 
of the estate in its fee simple. “ The history 
of the revenue administration of India is the 
history of landed property, and of the econo¬ 
mical condition of the whole agricultural 
population.” j* It is computed that on an 
average of the cultivated lands throughout 
India a tax of 3s. 6 d. per acre is levied. 
This is alleged to be equal to one-fourth of 
the gross produce. 

In 1765, when the Mogul granted Bengal, 
Bahar, and Orissa to the company, the subject 
of revenue necessarily arose for consideration. 
During the first four years of the English 
possession the native officers previously en¬ 
gaged in collecting the revenue were retained 
in their offices, and the system previously in 
existence continued to be worked. The sys¬ 
tem was then termed pattendaree, the zemin¬ 
dars and district registrars contracting for the 
revenues with the company. 

The history of the English revenue since 
then has been condensed and summed up by 
Arthur Mills, Esq., M.P., in the following 
form:— 

In 1769 supervisors, being covenanted 
servants of the company, were appointed in 
each district to report on the existing re¬ 
venue system, with a view to its amend¬ 
ment. 

In 1772, by proclamation, dated the 11th 
of Majq the company asserted their authority 
under the Mogul’s grant to the dewannee, 
or civil government, and, by regulations 
dated the 14th of May, a system of lease for 
five years to the highest bidder was in¬ 
augurated. 

In 1776 instructions were issued by the 
directors, authorizing the sale of lands in 
default of payment on the part of the zemin¬ 
dars or landholders with whom the govern¬ 
ment contracts were made. 

* Memorial of the Honourable East India Company. 


In 1781 regulations were framed and 
passed by the governor in council, estab¬ 
lishing a plan of annual leases; preference to 
be given in all cases to the zemindars. 

In 1789, by a minute of the governor- 
general (Lord Cornwallis), a settlement, in¬ 
volving a fixed payment of revenue for ten 
years, was announced. 

In 1793, by proclamation, dated the 22nd 
of March, the decennial settlement was de¬ 
clared to be permanent and irrevocable for 
ever, and regulations were framed for carry¬ 
ing it out. 

In 1799 an act was passed relaxing the 
stringent power of sale given theretofore to 
the government over the estates of defaulting 
zemindars. 

In 1802 the permanent revenue system of 
Bengal was extended to a portion of the 
Madras presidency, in which, under the aus¬ 
pices of Munro, a system had been established 
of direct dealing with individual cultivators, 
on yearly agreements, with allowances for 
irrigation or other improvements, and pro¬ 
viding also for the liability of villages for 
individual defaults. 

In 1803—5 the district called the Ba- 
rahmal, in Madras, was mapped out into 
zemindarries, and disposed of on fixed per¬ 
manent terms.* After many changes and 
modifications of system, we find— 

In 1817 three different systems existing in 
different parts of Madras:—1. The Corn¬ 
wallis, or zemindarry system; 2. The ryot- 
war, or Munro system, above described; and 
3. The village system of leases for years of 
all the lands comprised in the village, to¬ 
gether with all the profits; the liability for 
rent, and the duty of internal management, 
being committed to the leaseholders collec- 
tively.j- 

In 1820 the ryotwar system was made 
general through all parts of the Madras pre¬ 
sidency not alreadv permanently assessed. 

In 1821 a commission was appointed to 
investigate and report upon alleged abuses in 
the revenue system of the north-west pro¬ 
vinces, and in 1822, by Regulation VII., a 
system, of which Mr. Holt Mackenzie was the 
author, was promulgated, the leading object 
of which was to combine the advantages 

* A full account of the land revenue system, as it ex¬ 
isted iD 1812, will be found in the fifth report of the 
House of Commons of that year. 

f The first of these systems, the zemindarry, prevailed 
in Ganjam, Vizagapatam, Rajahmundry, Masulipatam, 
Guntore, Salem, Chingleput, Cuddalore, and the Pollams! 

The second, or ryotwar—in Malabar, Canara, Coim¬ 
batore, Madura, and Dindigul. 

The third, or village system—in the ceded districts, 
Nellore, Arcot, Palnaud, Trichinopoly, Tinnevelly, and 
Tan jore. 




Chap. XIV.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


300 


of tlie ryotwar system with that of village 
leases. 

In 1827, by the Bombay code of regula¬ 
tions, the work of Mr. Mountstuart Elphin- 
stone, a system was established, which, with 
subsequent modifications, still exists. 

In 1833, by Regulation IX. (under Lord 
William Bentinck), the settlement of the 
north-west provinces was further carried out, 
and in 1842 it was completed. In the 
working of this system native functionaries 
were largely employed. In the north-west 
provinces, Madras, and Bombay, the offices 
of collector and magistrate were at this time 
united in the same person. In Bengal they 
were kept distinct. 

In 1844 Scinde (in which territory a plan 
of collecting land revenue under military 
superintendence had been attempted by Sir 
Charles Napier) was annexed to Bombay, and 
partly subjected to the same system with that 
presidency. 

In 1847 a system of thirty years’ leases of 
‘‘fields” (the name given to so much land as 
one man and a pair of bullocks could culti¬ 
vate) was established in part of the Bombay 
presidency—the boundaries of the fields to 
be marked by stones—portions of the terri¬ 
tory being also annually let for grazing 
grounds. Under this system the dealings 
of the government were (on the ryotwar 
plan) with the individual cultivators. The 
fields were to be sold in default of pay¬ 
ment. 

In 1849 the Punjaub system of decennial 
contracts with the village communities was 
established, at the suggestion of the Law¬ 
rences, by Lord Dalhousie. 

A paper, “ showing under what tenures, 
and subject to what land-tax, lands are held 
in the several presidencies of India,” was 
lately returned to parliament. “ Returns,” 
illustrating the surveys and assessments in 
the north-west provinces, Bombay, and Ma¬ 
dras, have also been laid before the legisla¬ 
ture, and disclose the following condition of 
revenue affairs. 

Land Revenue System in Bengal.— 
The land is held by zemindars, who pay an 
annual fixed sum in perpetuity, the estates 
being liable to be sold on default of payment. 
The land-tax is supposed to be half the 
rental. Between the landlords or zemindars, 
and the cultivators, there are nearly always 
middlemen, and sometimes several renters be¬ 
tween them. This system was instituted by 
the Marquis Cornwallis, in 1793, with the 
object of creating a native landed aristocracy : 
the project was unfortunately approved of in 
England, so as to blind men to the necessary 


results of such a scheme. It has issued most 
mischievously, both for the government and 
the people. It is known by the designation 
of “ the permanent settlement.” The repre¬ 
sentations made of this scheme by persons 
competent to judge of its operations give a 
picture of oppression and injustice truly ter¬ 
rible. In order to carry out his plan of 
creating a native aristocracy, it was necessary 
for Lord Cornwallis to sweep away the rights 
of the ryots. Multitudes, who from time im¬ 
memorial had an inheritance in the land, 
were suddenly dispossessed in favour of Lord 
Cornwallis’s zemindars. These soon made 
their newly-acquired privileges felt by the 
victims whom the conceit and ignorance of 
the governor-general had placed in their 
power. The ryots were subjected to a series 
of grinding exactions so utterly merciless, 
that it is extraordinary how the stereotyped 
phrases of “ the mild and gentle Hindoo ” 
could have ever obtained amongst Europeans, 
who witnessed the cruel despotism of these 
avaricious and remorseless tyrants. The cul¬ 
tivators of Bengal are ground down into 
misery by a horde of merciless native rack- 
renters, unrighteously created, partly as a 
better medium of revenue, partly from a weak, 
vain, and criminal sympathy with aristocratic 
institutions. “ They (the zemindars) take 
from them (the ryots or cultivators) all they 
can get; in short, they exact whatever they 
please. The ryots have no defence whatever 
but that of removal ; they may decline to pay 
what is exacted, and quit the land.” * The 
“permanent settlement” has produced more 
distress and beggary, and a greater change 
in the landed property of Bengal, than has 
happened in the same space of time in any 
age or country by the mere effect of internal 
regulations. Mr. Piddington, a civilian, in 
his replies to the queries of the board of 
revenue, says, in reference to these extortions 
—“ I fear to be discredited when I state, that 
from twenty to forty per cent, on the actual 
jummabundi (legal rent) is yearly extorted 
from the poor ryot.” It has been the custom 
to launch angry impeachments against the 
company for this state of things, both in par¬ 
liament and throughout the country; and 
whenever any disappointed person returned 
from India, the relation of the zemindars and 
ryots was a fruitful theme of discourse in 
opposition to the committee in Leadenhall 
Street. 

In a defence of their conduct and policy 
lately put forth by the East India Company, 
the evil of this system has been frankly 
acknowledged, the error of Lord Cornwallis 

* Mill; Fifth Report of the Finance Committee in 
Bengal. 



310 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIV. 


described as such, and the company urges 
that it had no more power to change the 
relation of the zemindar or landlord of Bengal 
with the ryot, than the English government 
has had the power of altering the relation of 
the owners and occupiers of the soil in those 
provinces of Ireland where such has been 
least satisfactory. It cannot be denied, how¬ 
ever, that a long period has elapsed since the 
government of Cornwallis without adequate 
endeavours to apply a corrective in Bengal. 
The company takes credit to itself for not 
having imitated the Cornwallis system in 
other portions of India, and for having, by 
its recent surveys and magisterial regulations, 
done much to prevent litigation, always in 
India unfavourable to the poor man, and for 
defining his rights. The tenacity, however, 
of old impressions which characterises the 
Hindoos, has kept alive the idea of a right 
still existing in the actual cultivator to hold 
his land at a rent fixed by custom, not by 
arbitrary will; and this traditionary feeling, 
from which the landlords themselves are not 
exempt, must form the basis of anything that 
can be hereafter done to improve the tenure 
of the Bengal ryot.* 

System of Land Revenue in the North- 
Western Provinces. —The mode of assess¬ 
ing land in these provinces is much supe¬ 
rior to that pursued in Bengal. The plan 
adopted by Lord Cornwallis was happily 
avoided in “ the settlement ” of the ter¬ 
ritory within the limits of the lieutenant- 
governorship, when the wars conducted under 
the government of the Marquis Wellesley led 
to the acquirement of these districts. At 
first the arrangements for land taxes were 
provisional, and this state of things was allowed 
to continue many years, the company wishing 
to gain experience, and being warned against 
precipitancy by the working of the “perma¬ 
nent settlement” in Bengal. After thirty 
years, during which the company’s officers 
made themselves acquainted with the capa¬ 
bilities of the country, the settlement of the 
provinces began, and was completed in 1844. 
The ancient tenure of those districts was that 
of “ village communities.” The descendants 
of those who originally conquered or reclaimed 
the land held it as a community. There 
were inhabitants of “ the village ” (or district 
of territory so called), renting plots from those 
who descended from the ancient possessors ; 
such tenants were generally removable, but 
sometimes fixity of tenure had been in par¬ 
ticular cases granted. The East India Com¬ 
pany determined upon recognising the rights 

* Memorandum of the Improvements in the Adminis¬ 
tration of India, 


of the village communes. In order to ensure 
certainty as to the proper boundaries of pro¬ 
perties, and the most equitable assessment, a 
detailed survey was made of an area of 
seventy-two thousand square miles, inhabited 
by a population of nearly twenty-four millions 
of persons. Settlements were made for twenty 
and some for thirty years ; some of those 
made in the earlier years of the adjustment 
are now nearly run out, and the occupancy 
has been satisfactory alike to the government 
and the tenant. A revenue of four millions 
sterling is obtained from the north-west 
government, the collection being easy, and 
the people contented. The following ac¬ 
count of the survey and assessment of the 
north-western provinces, issued by the India- 
house, will explain the whole process of these 
operations, and enable the student of these 
pages to enter intelligently into the discus¬ 
sions whieh are now conducted, not only 
among politicians and political economists, but 
by many who have not qualified themselves 
to pronounce any opinion upon the subject:— 

The objects of the survey were, first, to fix 
on each mehal or estate an assessment “ cal¬ 
culated so as to leave a fair surplus profit; ” 
and “ for the punctual payment of that sum, 
the land is held to be perpetually hypothe¬ 
cated to the government; ” secondly, to 
determine who are the “ person or persons 
entitled to receive this surplus profit. The 
right thus determined is declared to be herit¬ 
able and transferable, and the persons entitled 
to it are considered the proprietors of the 
land, from whom the engagements for the 
annual payment of the sum assessed by 
government on the mehal are taken.” The 
proprietors, when there are more than one, 
being jointly and severally responsible for the 
sum assessed on each mehal, it also became 
necessary to determine the rule according to 
which they should share the profits, or make 
good the losses on the estate. When the 
proprietors were numerous, as was generally 
the case, engagements were taken only from 
a few of the body (lumber dars) who, for them¬ 
selves and their co-proprietors, undertook to 
manage the mehal, and pay the sum assessed 
on it. 

The first step in the process was to adjust 
the boundaries of each mouzah* or village, 
and to prepare a map showing each field com¬ 
prised in the mouzah. This being com¬ 
pleted, the settlement officer proceeded to 
determine the assessment to be fixed on the 
land, by estimating, with as near an approach 
to accuracy as the means at his disposal would 

* Mouzah does not mean a village in the English 
sense of the term, hut rather a compactly inhabited agri¬ 
cultural district. 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


311 


Chap. XIV.] 

permit, what might be expected to he the net 
produce * to the proprietor during the period 
of settlement; and of this amount about two - 
thirds was fixed as the demand of govern¬ 
ment. The village was then offered on these 
terms to the proprietors, and if they con¬ 
sidered them too high, and declined to engage, 
the government either leased the estate to a 
farmer, or collected the rents direct from the 
cultivators; the excluded proprietors being 
entitled to a per-centage (called malikana ) at 
not less than five per cent, on the revenue, 
and also having the right, at the expiration 
of twelve years, of claiming to be re-admitted 
to the management. 

The fiscal operation of fixing the amount 
of revenue to be paid by the village being 
completed, the next process was to ascertain 
and record the rights possessed by all parties, 
whether called proprietors or not. When 
discordant claims were put forward, the ques¬ 
tion at issue was determined judicially on the 
spot. Provision is also made for maintaining 
the “ record of rights ” in a correct condition, 
by causing registers of all changes in the 
village to be kept by the putwarree, or village 
accountant, copies of which are annually for¬ 
warded to the collector’s office. 

A portion of the Bengal province itself has 
been lately settled on the principles just stated 
as carried out under the Agra government, 
adjusted to what is called the ryotwar (the 
system of the ryot tenure) already explained. 
Th*e district referred to is Cuttack, to which 
“the permanent settlement” of Lord Corn¬ 
wallis was not, from some cause, extended. 
The assessment is made on the holding of 
each ryot or tenant, but the collection is com¬ 
mitted to a delegation of the ryots upon the 
village plan, or as close an approximation to 
it as can be made where the land is held by 
ryot tenure. So well has this scheme operated 
in Cuttack, that it has been applied also to 
the territory lately acquired from the nizam. 
It is now only in course of introduction, but, 
so far, with the same satisfactory results which 
have been realized in Cuttack. The plan has 
been much discussed in the India-house, and 
the directors have already recommended the 
Madras government, under which the ryot¬ 
war is prevalent, to take into consideration 
its eventual adoption in that presidency. 

Land Revenue System in the Non-regu¬ 
lation Provinces. —The settlement of the 
various non-regulation provinces has proceeded 
upon plans satisfactory to the people, and which 
bear an affinity in their general principles to 

* By net produce is meant the surplus which the es¬ 
tate may yield after deducting the expenses of cultivation, 
including the profits of stock and wages of labour. 


those described as adopted in the government 
of the north-west. The last experiment of 
the kind has been the only failure, where, 
doubtless it would have also succeeded if 
time for its working had been obtained. This 
experiment was made in Oude, and was 
among the circumstances which contributed 
to the revolt. The editor of a metropolitan 
journal thus writes:—“Throughout a great 
portion of Oude we found superior holders— 
some say proprietors, some say merely here¬ 
ditary farmers, but at any rate, hereditary 
middlemen— holding large tracts between 
government and the cultivating communities, 
and responsible for the revenue. In Bengal 
they were generally recognised as proprietors, 
and the rights of the sub-holders were re¬ 
duced to nil. In the north-west provinces 
they were generally set aside, but even to the 
present day there has been no more fertile 
source of argument and litigation than the 
rights of the most prominent of these talook- 
dars, as we call them. Some have obtained 
decrees against government in the civil courts, 
and many receive a per-centage in compro¬ 
mise of their rights, or alleged rights. Now, 
in Oude this talookdaree system was par¬ 
ticularly strong. Almost the whole country 
was parcelled out amongst great talookdars 
or zemindars, and, though under a Moham¬ 
medan government, these men were almost 
universally Hindoos—in fact, native chiefs ; 
certainly more than mere farmers—and they 
had obtained great prescription, exercised 
great power and authority, and were, in fact, 
the feudatories (and very often the rebellious 
feudatories) of the government. They had 
their own forts, and troops, and guns. Under 
this system, the village proprietary rights, no 
doubt, became much more undefined, weak, 
and uncertain, than where the villagers hold 
direct of government; and, disused and pre¬ 
carious, those rights were sometimes little 
remembered or valued. Here, then, when we 
took possession, was a very puzzling question. 
With whom was the settlement to be made ? 
The talookdars were strong and in possession 
the communities dormant, broken, ill-defined. 
It must take some time to suppress the one, 
and resuscitate the other. But revenue opi¬ 
nion in the north-west provinces has long run 
very strongly in favour of village proprietors ; 
still stronger must it be in the Punjaub, 
where there is no doubt about the matter, 
and Oude was principally managed by officers 
from those provinces. The general result of 
the settlement has been to oust the talookdars, 
and make direct village settlements. Then 
immediately followed the rebellion. At first 
the talookdars behaved well to us personally. 
They are men of honour in their way; with 



312 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIV 


the butchery of the rabble they have no sym¬ 
pathy ; to protect all who seek their protection 
is with them a point of honour. By none have 
so many European lives been saved as by these 
men. But our government was altogether 
upset; no time had yet elapsed sufficient to 
destroy the strength of the talookdars, or to 
enable the village proprietors to acquire 
strength in, or probably even any sufficient 
appreciation of their rights ; the talookdars 
almost universally resumed what they con¬ 
sidered to be their own again, and seem to 
have met with popular support. Thus they 
became committed against government, and, 
being committed, our severities at Allahabad 
and at Cawnpore led them to fear the worst.” * 

The Punjaub affords the company gratula- 
tion and triumph in the adjustment of its land 
revenue. When, in 1849, the Sikh territory 
was acquired, the “ settlement ” of it was 
committed to officers who had gained expe¬ 
rience under the lieutenant-governorship of 
Agra. In many respects the government of 
the Punjaub has been more successfully ad¬ 
ministered than that of Agra,—the depart¬ 
ments of education and public works will 
exemplify this,—and in revenue a claim to 
superiority is also well founded. The settle¬ 
ment made more rapid, and, no far at least, 
more satisfactory progress, than in the north¬ 
west. This, however, would naturally arise 
from the tentative character of the proceed¬ 
ings in the one case, and the assured and 
bold procedure of experience in a well-proved 
system in the other. The lettings in the 
Punjaub are on terms more favourable to the 
cultivators by twenty-five per cent. The i 
result is universal contentment on the part of 
the people, and an easily collected and flourish¬ 
ing revenue for the government.'}' The Pun¬ 
jaub system is in fact the village and ryot 
systems combined, as in Cuttack. There is, 
however, diversity. The zemindar system— 
with some qualification in favour of the 
tenants, and the ryots, with but little inter¬ 
mixture of the village system—exists in the 
hills and in some places in the doabs. As 
far as circumstances and actual proprietary 
rights allow, the Agra system is introduced 
in all the non-regulation provinces. 

The Land Revenue System in Bombay.— 
In all southern India the ryot tenure is pre¬ 
dominant, although in many directions other 
tenures were found in existence by the British 
when conquest placed the territory under their 

* The Sunday Times, a paper which contains intelli¬ 
gence on the subject of Indian government and policy, 
showing an extensive acquaintance with the subject. 

t Reports of the Commissioners of Ike Punjaub ; Par¬ 
liamentary Blue Books. 


control. The Bombay ryot holds his land at 
a fixed rate, and as long as he pays it he can¬ 
not be dispossessed, but he is at liberty to 
give up the whole, or a part, whenever he 
may be so disposed. Until lately the assess¬ 
ments were too heavy, but the company made 
a considerable sacrifice of revenue to reduce 
the rate, and the improvement which has fol¬ 
lowed, both in the personal comfort of the ryot, 
and the state of the land which he cultivates, 
is very observable. Here, as in the north¬ 
west, the survey has been productive of the 
greatest benefit. The details of the process 
by which a better state of things is being 
produced in the tenures of land in Bombay 
cannot be so briefly, and at the same time 
completely, detailed, as in the following ex¬ 
tract from a paper, issued by the court of 
directors, on the survey and assessment of 
the Bombay territory :— 

The first step in the process is to deter¬ 
mine the boundaries of the village. The 
area is then measured and mapped off into 
survey-fields. If the land is unoccupied, 
no division of a field is afterwards permitted. 
When a survey-field actually occupied is 
owned by several proprietors or sharers, no 
joint responsibility is admitted, but the sharers 
of each are separately shown in the map, and 
the separate proprietorship continues until 
one of the sharers dies without heirs, or 
otherwise vacates his share; on which event 
the vacated share must be taken up by the 
remaining sharers, or, on their refusal, the 
whole field must be relinquished. The object 
of these rules is to consolidate the small hold¬ 
ings, and set limits to the minute subdivision 
of landed property naturally arising from the 
Hindoo law of inheritance. But it is be¬ 
lieved that, in practice, no difficulty has in 
such cases been found in inducing the remain¬ 
ing sharers to undertake the responsibility. 

The fields of the village being thus mea¬ 
sured and mapped, the next process is that 
of classification, for the purpose of deter¬ 
mining the relative value of the fields into 
which the land is divided. After a minute 
examination of the physical characters of the 
soil, its depth, composition, &c., the following 
considerations are taken into account as re¬ 
gards the fields of the same village—viz., 
“their natural productive capabilities; their 
position with respect to the village, as afford¬ 
ing facilities or otherwise for agricultural 
operations; and, in the case of garden or rice - 
lands, the supply of water for irrigation.” 

The measurement of the fields having been 
completed, and their classification determined, 
the amount of the assessment is next to be 
fixed. This operation is not performed by 
inquiring into the actual produce of the fields, 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST 


313 


Ciiap. XIV.] 

.but rather by an examination into the pre¬ 
vious fiscal history of such groups of villages 
as are distinguished by similar physical cha¬ 
racteristics. The statements of former col¬ 
lections, remissions, and balances, are collated 
with the existing rates of assessment. The 
climate, position with respect to markets, agri¬ 
cultural skill, and the actual condition of the 
cultivators, are taken into account; and from 
a consideration ol these combined circum¬ 
stances, rates are determined for each class of 
land; the object being to keep these rates 
within the limits of the natural rent. The 
rates being thus fixed, have only to be applied 
to the surveyed fields. The assessment is 
not liable to increase for thirty years. No 
extra levy is made in consequence of im¬ 
provement raising the value of the tenure. 

Scinde is a non-regulation province in con¬ 
nection with the government of Bombay, but 
the mode ofassessment there has been peculiar. 
Until lately it was collected throughout the 
province in grain, by division of the crop. 
The proceeds in the hands of government 
were afterwards sold by reserve auction at 
what sometimes amounted to famine prices. 
Cash assessments are now rapidly superseding 
such an objectionable levy. Before long Scinde 
will share with the presidency to which it is 
attached the advantage of a more equitably 
measured and distributed rate of taxation. 

Land Revenue in Madras. —In Madras 
the three systems already noticed are all 
found, and a fourth which is peculiar to the 
presidency, and called oolungoo. This last 
exists only in Tanjore and Tinnevelly. It 
is peculiar in two respects: the rent is 
dependant upon the price of grain, and a 
special arrangement, as to profit and loss, 
exists between the government and the 
renter. The proportionate grain assess¬ 
ment needs no explanation. The arrange¬ 
ment as to profit and loss provides that if 
current prices in any year rise more than ten 
per cent., the government should have all the 
profit thus accruing; whereas, if prices fall 
more than five per cent., the government sus¬ 
tains all that loss. 

The zemindar system in Madras has a sort 
of offshoot called mootakdarry , from “ Moo- 
tah,” a name given to a subdivision in the 
Northern Circars, where the custom prevails 
which receives its name. 

The name of zemindarry is applied to all 
ancestral estates, while mootalidarry is given 
to the settlements of 1802. 

Ryotwar is, however, the predominating 
scheme for land arrangements. The general 
settlements of the presidency have resulted 
from the labours of Colonel Reade, and Sir 

von. i. 


Thomas Munro, whose arrangements received 
the most marked approval of the company. 
The assessments were, however, excessive, 
and the ryots of Southern India were dis¬ 
contented and distressed until the late altera¬ 
tions for the melioration of their condition. 
The “ annual settlement ” operates, not as an 
annual lease, but as a recurring adjustment of 
the proportion of revenue to be levied. 

In a work published a few years ago * by 
a gentleman w r ell acquainted with both the 
Bombay and Madras systems, the ryotwar 
of the whole Deccan was discussed, and 
afforded a fair exhibition of the state of 
things both at Bombay and Madras. The 
condition of this class of tenants is thus set 
forth :—“ The old plan was, we believe, sub¬ 
stantially this:—the government demand was 
pitched so high, that even in the most favour¬ 
able seasons a large portion of it always re¬ 
mained unrealized. The cultivator, with an 
assessment hanging over him which he never 
could hope to pay, was of course entirely in 
the hands of the revenue officers. These lat¬ 
ter, at the proper season, surveyed his crops, 
and, from the judgment they formed of them, 
assessed him for the year. Even this assess¬ 
ment was usually higher than it was found 
possible to collect, so that large remissions 
had frequently to be made, and considerable 
balances were left unrecovered. The faults 
of such a system as this scarcely need to be 
pointed out. The constant meddling on the 
part of government officials—the large num¬ 
ber of these which the system rendered it 
necessary to employ—the slavish dependance 
in which the ryot was retained—the corrup¬ 
tion and petty tyranny on the one hand, and 
the absence of manly and independent feeling, 
and, therefore, of energetic and enterprising 
industry on the other,—were all necessary re¬ 
sults of such arrangements. But, in addition 
to these, the revenue actually taken appears 
to have been on an average (although the 
rates in themselves were so small that an 
English farmer would laugh to hear them 
announced) decidedly greater than native 
tenants, with such knowledge, skill, mate¬ 
rials, means, and industrial habits as they 
possessed, were able to pay without slowly 
diminishing their means for future cultiva¬ 
tion.” The new system by which that just 
described is being displaced is thus described 
by Mr. Green :— 

The principal operations in the Deccan sur¬ 
vey and assessment appear to be the following: 

I. The surface survey; to determine, and 
mark permanently, the boundaries of each 
village and of each field. 

* The Deccan Ryots and their Land Tenure. By 
H. Green, Professor of Literature at Poonah College. 

S S 







S14 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIV. 


II. A survey and estimate of the quality 
of the soil in each field; and the assignment 
of a technical value to it per acre in an arti¬ 
ficial scale of relative values ranging from an 
anna and a half to sixteen annas. 

III. The division of the districts into 
groups of villages, such that those of each 
group may he supposed to possess nearly 
equal advantages of climate, markets, and con¬ 
venience of carriage. 

IV. The imposition on each group of vil¬ 
lages of a total assessment, such as, from 
the past history of the group, it may fairly 
he expected to pay, and yet leave a con¬ 
siderable margin for the increase of the 
peasant’s stock, and the consequent exten¬ 
sion of cultivation. 

V. A merely arithmetical operation—to 
wit, the assignment to each field of its share 
of the assessment in proportion to its size 
and its place in the scale of relative values. 

At a time when the grossest misrepresen¬ 
tations of the land tenure of India, and of the 
exactions of the East India Company are 
being made for political and party purposes, 
and for the still more censurable objects of 
private resentment, by persons who have re¬ 
turned from India disappointed in various 
ways, it is important to draw attention to the 
following statement- of the easy terms in 
which land is held in Southern India, and the 
disinterested and generous treatment the ryots 
receive from the company under the new 
system :—“ The four Poonah talooks, with 
all the advantage of the largest market for 
agricultural produce in the Deccan, pay an 
average rent, it will be seen, of only seven 
annas and seven pies, or something less 
than a shilling an acre ! In the Indapore 
talook the average is 8 d. an acre ! In 
Dharwar the land of the best class, the famous 
black soil of India, that on which cotton 
is grown, pays on an average but 14 annas 
(Is. 9 d .)—the rate for the most eligible por¬ 
tion of this again being but 1 rupee, 7 annas, 
and 9 pies, or something less than three 
shillings! What would an English, or even 
an Irish, farmer say to such rates as 8 d. an 
acre for a whole district, or three shillings 
per acre for the best land to be had? The 
bold reduction of their demands to such rates 
as these reflects certainly the highest credit 
on the liberality of the government; and one 
cannot but rejoice to see such a policy re¬ 
warded by an extension of agricultural indus¬ 
try, and the gradual restoration of the gross 
revenue to its former amount. But what 
volumes does the necessity for such rates 
tell of the wretched industrial character of 
the people, and their extreme unproductive¬ 
ness ! ” 


It is probable that the cultivators of the 
Deccan, however liberally dealt with as to 
taxation and rent (which are synonymous 
with them), will pay very little revenue, 
and remain miserably poor so long as mere 
coarse agricultural products are alone the 
result of their labour. The soil, the climate, 
the liberal terms on which land is held, the 
almost nominal amount of taxation, all favour 
a more enlightened, enlarged, and enter¬ 
prising use of the land than appears at pre¬ 
sent likely. If the ryot of the Deccan had 
land for nothing, he would be ordinarily 
wretchedly poor, and in adverse seasons des¬ 
titute. For the sake of the improvement of 
the people, the attainment of a larger reve¬ 
nue, and the promotion of civilization, 
means must be tried under the auspices of 
government for promoting a superior cultiva¬ 
tion, the application of capital to husbandry, 
and a spirit of bolder enterprise in matters 
connected with the tenure of land. 

So far as the revenue derived from the 
soil in India is concerned, the great majority 
of the people may be described as almost un¬ 
taxed. The original right of the state to the 
land is recognised in India by the natives, 
and was reserved by the British when they 
obtained the sovereignty of the country. 
Wherever the land is let at its fair value,—and 
we have shown that in many places it is let 
beneath its fair value,—the people pay no taxes 
except such as is derived from salt, opium, 
the post-office, and a few minor sources. The 
rent they pay to the landlord—the govern¬ 
ment—is used for the general protection of 
the country, the administration of justice, 
and public works. They are, so far as the 
amount of the rent goes, spared from taxes; 
and when it is remembered that nearly two- 
thirds of the whole revenue consists in the 
rent of land, the people of India are, as a 
whole, the most lightly taxed in the world. 
The oppressed state of the Bengal cultiva¬ 
tors, as has been shown, is the work of native 
zemindars, not of the government; but it is 
sad to reflect that the arrangement which has 
consigned them to such terrible exaction and 
injustice was the work of a British governor- 
general. It cannot be doubted that even in 
that case Lord Cornwallis intended that the 
rights of the cultivators should be secured, 
but they were too poor and too feebb to main¬ 
tain these rights before unprincipled native 
judges, in the face of the powerful zemindars ; 
and, as the board of directors admit, little by 
little, sub silentio, their rights as a class have 
passed away. For this some remedy must be 
provided, both for the credit of the govern¬ 
ment and the condition of the people of 
Bengal. 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


315 


Chap. XIV.] 


Revenue from Salt. —This may be con¬ 
sidered the only tax which the ryot of 
India really feels. So far as the presidency 
of Madras is concerned the revenue from salt 
is obtained by means of a monopoly. The 
following paper, published by the revenue 
department of the East India Company, will 
show at a glance the present condition of the 
salt duties throughout India : — 

Lower Provinces of Bengal .—Rate of duty 
rupees per inaund of 82-f- lbs. avoirdu¬ 
pois ; government salt sold to the people at 
cost price added to the duty; importation un¬ 
restricted, and facilities given to persons 
willing to manufacture salt under excise re¬ 
gulations. 

North-western Provinces .— Manufacture 
(from saliferous earths) prohibited. Duty on 
passing the frontier line, 2 rupees per maund, 
and 8 annas additional on crossing the Alla¬ 
habad special line of ehokeys. 

Punjaub. —Salt-mines worked by the go¬ 
vernment, and the salt sold at the mines at 
2 rupees per maund. 

Fort St. George .—The manufacture of salt 
a government monopoly, the price charged 
to purchasers being a rupee per maund. 
Importation permitted, on payment of a 
duty of 14 annas (seven-eighths of a rupee) 
per maund, supposed to be equivalent to 
the profit obtained on the monopoly of salt. 

Bombay. —No manufacture on the part 
of government. An excise duty of 12 annas 
per maund levied on home-made salt, and 
a customs duty of equal amount on im¬ 
ported salt. 

In some instances this tax has been levied 
instead of others which were more likely to 
be burthensome, and the amount of remission 
on the whole in consequence of the salt duties 
has, according to the statements of the go¬ 
vernment, been greater than the tax thus 
imposed. 

Although the salt tax was in some cases 
levied by the company where it did not 
previously exist, yet generally the imposition 
was one handed down from previous govern¬ 
ments. Salt was an ancient source of revenue 
with most Asiatic sovereigns. At present it 
is calculated that the government is receiving 
a revenue from the tax in this commodity 
amounting to about two and a half millions 
sterling. 

The Opium Revenue.— This is derived in 
two forms : first, by a monopoly in the culti¬ 
vation and sale by the government of Bengal, 
and by opium farms in the Straits’ settlements; 
secondly, by an export duty levied in Bombay 
on the article grown in the native states of 


Malwa, and shipped from the former place. 
It is grown in Bengal and in the settlements 
of the Straits entirely on government account, 
and sold by the company’s officers to mer¬ 
chants, British or native. Merchants from 
Bombay purchase it in the native states in 
Malwa, and the government of that presi¬ 
dency exacts a transit duty. The effect of 
this monopoly on the one hand, and heavy 
transit duty on the other, is greatly to raise 
the price of the commodity, so that it has 
been sometimes sold for its weight in silver. 
The revenue at present being raised from this 
source is between four and five millions 
sterling. 

Objections have been strongly urged, both 
on ethical and economical grounds, against 
this source of revenue. The defence of the 
company is, that if the government did not 
take the cultivation under its own control, and 
tax highly its transit from the native states 
into their territories, the poppy would he ex¬ 
tensively grown on private account, and the 
drug become so cheap, as to be made an 
article of commerce by the people of India, 
to their injury morally and physically. As 
to selling it to the Chinese, who purchase 
nearly all that is produced, it is urged, that 
it is as impossible in commerce to take into 
account the uses made of articles for which 
there is an export market, as it would be, in 
the case of imported commodities, to institute 
an inquiry as to how they were produced. 
Such a pi’inciple was never established in 
morals, and would be impracticable if applied 
to trade. Considered in a fiscal point of 
view, the company regards it as an advan¬ 
tageous and equitable source of revenue, in¬ 
asmuch as foreigners voluntarily pay the tax. 

Some of these arguments, if good in the 
case of the opium monopoly, would also have 
been valid in the instance of the tobacco 
monopoly, which, nevertheless, was abolished 
without an equivalent in 1852, although 
yielding a revenue of £60,000 a year in 
Malabar. Tobacco seems to be a Bource of 
revenue as just as opium, and the company 
might fairly impose the duty. 

Revenue from Customs. —The income of 
the government from this source is derived 
in two ways—inland dues and external com¬ 
merce. The system of transit duties has 
for some years been gradually waning, except 
so far as the opium from Malwa is concerned. 
That source of revenue is likely to increase 
so long as the Chinese continue to import, 
and there is a possibility of much larger 
imports there. The company has removed 
restrictions from trade, abolished local taxes 
of all kinds, and influenced the native states 




316 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIV. 


to imitate this example to some extent. All 
those states promise greater conformity to 
British example in this matter, hut the pro¬ 
mises of some are insincere. In the Punjaub 
there are town dues, which are voluntarily 
submitted to by the people for local purposes, 
and great advantages have followed this 
voluntary corporate taxation. In some other 
places imposts have been laid for the exclu¬ 
sive purpose of local improvement. The 
government encourages the disposition to 
self-taxation for civic and local improve¬ 
ment in every possible way. The duties 
on external commerce have also been un¬ 
dergoing a process of gradual reduction. 
The import duties levied on British goods 
is five per cent, ad valorem. The total 
abolition of import duties on British goods 
has been urged on the government • it would 
be a boon to commerce, and not seriously 
affect the revenue. There is an export 
tax of three per cent, on the manufactures 
of India. In a despatch from the home 
government of 1846 this was represented as 
an impost,, to be abolished as soon as the 
general state of the revenue would allow. It 
ought at once to be abrogated; it is impolitic, 
as well as opposed to political economy. It 
has also been in contemplation to abolish the 
import duty on British goods—at least, so it 
is alleged by the friends of the Honourable 
East India Company. 

Post-office Revenue. —The object of the 
tax is rather for public convenience than for 
revenue. The rates should be reduced, and 
the arrangements much improved, but in both 
respects the grand difficulties are the pecu¬ 
liarities of the country and the people who 
inhabit it. A comparatively low rate of uni¬ 
form postage has been adopted with so much 
success, as to encourage bolder experiments 
in the same direction. 

Stamp Duties. —In India stamped paper 
is required in all judicial proceedings, as well 
as for bills of exchange, agreements, receipts, 
and deeds; also for petitions and papers filed 
in court. About half a million sterling is thus 
realized, and it is probable that a much 
larger revenue will be raised in this manner. 

Abkabee.— This word signifies a tax on 
waters (“strong waters” being understood); 
and the revenue so called is derived from 
licenses to sell spirits. This tax is much 
more willingly paid in India than similar 
imposts in Europe. 

Sayer.— This word signifies the remainder, 
and, used in revenue vocabulary, refers to 


unclassified taxes. It is levied on drugs of 
all kinds, except opium, which, as we have 
already seen, contributes to the revenue in 
other forms. There is a want of definiteness 
in the way in which this tax is imposed, and 
the range of articles subject to it, which gives 
rise to many complaints. 

The abkaree and sayer, taken together, 
yield £1,000,000. These taxes are likely to 
be more productive. Peace and security 
would soon double the revenue thus de¬ 
rived. 

The miscellaneous taxes contribute about 

£ 1 , 000 , 000 . 

The total revenue of India, exclusive of 
subsidies from native states, amounted in 
1857 to nearly twenty-nine millions sterling. 
There can be no doubt that, as soon as 
order is established after the present revolt, 
taxation in India, wisely distributed, and 
keeping in view the principles of political 
economy, will yield many millions sterling 
more than it at present affords the govern¬ 
ment. 

Subsidies from Native States. —For 
1857 the sum of £510,166 is understood to 
have been collected from the tributaries. 
They are thus elassed :— 

BENGAL. 

Tributes from the under -mentioned 


states:— £. £. 

Kotah. 7,056 

Odeypore. 18,516 

Mundy. 9,875 

Jhalwar. 7,500 

Banswarra. 2,568 

Doongerpore. 2,568 

Jeypore. 37,500 

Serohee. 1,269 

Various petty states. 4,320 

Nizams’s government on account of 

Mahratta Choute. 10,183 

-100,805 

MADRAS. 

Peishcush and subsidy:— 

Mysore government. 229,687 

Travancore government. 74,666 

Cochin government. 18,750 

-323,103 

BOM BAT. 

Subsidy from the Cutch government. 15,795 

Kattywar tribute. 56,105 

Various petty states. 3,096 

- 74,996 


498,904 

This description of tribute is likely to 
increase. The tendency of events is to bring 
the quasi-independent states more and more 
into reliance upon the government for secu¬ 
rity, and this will of course involve propor¬ 
tionate increase in tribute. 




















Chap. XV.'J 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST* 


317 


The detailed items of principal expendi¬ 
ture, on an average of the four years preced¬ 
ing the mutiny of 1857 (which has, of course, 
considerably increased them), were stated in 
round numbers as follows :— 


Charges incident to the collection of the £. 

revenue. 6,000,000 

Military and naval charges. 11,000,000 

Civil, judicial, aud police. 5,000,000 

Public works. 1,500’,000 

Interest on bond debt in India. 2,000,000 


Charges defrayed in England (includ--) 
ing interest on home bond debt, 
payments ou account of her ma- „„ 
jesty’s troops and establishment). [ A»72,1U7 

Charges of the East India-house 

and Board of Control .J 

Allowances and assignments to native ) 


princes under treaties and others 1,000,000 

engagements.) 

ividends to proprietors of East India 

stock. 627,893 

Total. 30,000,000 


The expenditure, it will be seen, exceeds 
the income. To meet that excess money has 
been raised on bond in England. About 
a fifth part of the existing debt has been in¬ 
curred in this manner. 

In India money is raised in the following 
way :—The company advertises that it is 
ready to receive loans at specified rates, and 
on specified conditions. “Loan-notes” are 
given in acknowledgment of the moneys 
paid into the treasury. 

The amount of debt in England and India 
is now nearly sixty millions sterling. 

In the year ending April 30th, 1857, the 
excess of expenditure over income amounted 
to £1,981,062. 

The accounts for the presidency of Bengal 
during the last four years have shown a uni¬ 
form deficit; those for the north-west pro¬ 
vinces a uniform surplus. 

The returns of the other presidencies as to 
surplus and deficit varied during that time. 


CHAPTER XV. 

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE BRITISH INDIAN EMPIRE ( Continued !). 


LAW AND ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
The state of the law in India must be re¬ 
garded in two points of view—as it relates to 
the native population, and in reference to 
English residents. 

It may be laid down as a general prin¬ 
ciple in the legal government of British 
India, that the laws and general systems of 
jurisprudence which the company found in 
existence upon the acquisition of any pro¬ 
vince were preserved in force until otherwise 
determined by new regulations by the new 
government. These were sometimes insti¬ 
tuted by orders in council, and sometimes by 
act of parliament. 

The imperial legislature and the governor- 
general in council both legislate for India at 
present, but no act of the latter must contra¬ 
vene or supersede the acts of the former. 

The acts passed by the governor-general in 
council extend to the British as well as to 
the natives in India, a circumstance which 
has proved a fruitful source of discontent to 
independent English residents, although that 
dissatisfaction was not always founded in jus¬ 
tice and reason. The discontent of English 
residents was formerly sometimes occasioned 
by the precipitancy with which acts of the 
governor and council were passed, by which 
they considered their interests unfavourably 
affected. The directors accordingly ordered 


that before any act was so passed notice 
should appear in the leading journals of the 
presidencies for some time (generally a few 
months) before the measure was passed into a 
law, so as to give opportunity for such classes 
as might deem themselves aggrieved by it to 
state their objections. 

When an act is passed, it is always pub¬ 
lished in the language of the district to which 
it is intended to apply, and also in English 
and in Ordoo, a dialect of the Hindoostanee 
supposed to be known by the better informed 
natives. 

The acts of the governor-general in council 
may be enforced as soon as published, but 
copies must be laid before the imperial par¬ 
liament, by which they may be altered or 
abolished. All acts of the governor-general 
in council are laws, on the assumption that 
the imperial government does not disapprove 
of them. 

PROVINCE OF THE SUPREME COURTS. 

Law applicable to British-born Resi¬ 
dents of India. —The supreme courts are 
established in the capitals of the three pre¬ 
sidencies. There is a local jurisdiction 
besides, which the supreme court at Calcutta 
exercises in that city. This local jurisdiction 
1 is civil and criminal, and refers to all persons. 














318 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XV. 


English or natives, within the limits, but its 
ecclesiastical authority does not extend to 
Hindoos or Mohammedans, except for grant¬ 
ing probates of wills. 

The court also exercises authority over all 
British-born subjects and their descendants, 
born in India, who are resident in Bengal and 
the north-west provinces, with the exception 
of the queen’s troops and their families. 

It also extends to natives of India, who are 
under any contract or special legal obligation 
to any British-born subject, where the cause 
of action exceeds the sum of five hundred 
rupees (£50), and so far as the contract is 
concerned. 

All persons who avail themselves of the 
court’s jurisdiction in any matter are held 
liable to its authority in all other matters 
affected by the particular case in which they 
have made it available. 

“ All persons who, at the time of action 
brought or cause of action accrued, are or 
have been employed by, or directly or indi¬ 
rectly in the service of, the East India Com¬ 
pany, or any British subject, are liable to the 
civil jurisdiction of the court in actions for 
wrongs or trespasses, and also in any civil 
suit by agreement of parties in writing to 
submit to the jurisdiction of the said court; 
and all persons who, at the time of commit- 
ing any crime, misdemeanour, or oppression, 
are or have been employed, or directly or in¬ 
directly in service as aforesaid, are liable to 
the criminal jurisdiction of the court.” 

“ The supreme courts at -Calcutta, Madras, 
and Bombay, have criminal jurisdiction over 
all British subjects for crimes committed at 
any place within the limits of the company’s 
charter—that is, any part of Asia, Africa, or 
America, beyond the Cape of Good Hope to 
the Straits of Magellan, or for crimes com¬ 
mitted in any of the lands or territories of 
any native prince or state, in the same way 
as if the same had been committed within 
the territories subject to the British govern¬ 
ment in India.” 

The admiralty jurisdiction of the court 
extends over the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, 
and Orissa, and all the adjacent territories 
and islands; and the criminal authority con¬ 
nected with this jurisdiction extends to all 
crimes committed on the high seas, in as full 
a manner as that of any other court of ad¬ 
miralty. 

The law administered is as follows 

First. The common law as it prevailed in 
England in the year 1726, and which has not 
subsequently been altered by statutes espe¬ 
cially extending to India, or by acts of the 
legislative council of India. 

Secondly The statute law which prevailed 


in England in 1726, and which has not sud- 
sequently been altered by statute especially 
extending to India, or by the acts of the 
legislative council of India. 

Thirdly. The statute law expressly ex¬ 
tending to India, which has been enacted 
since 1726, and has not been since repealed, 
and the statutes which have been extended 
to India by the acts of the legislative council 
of India. 

Fourthly. The civil law as it obtains in the 
ecclesiastical and admiralty courts. 

Fifthly. Regulations made by the governor- 
general in council, previously to the 3 & 4 
William IV., cap. 85, and registered in the 
supreme court, and the acts of the legislative 
council of India made under the 3 & 4 Wil¬ 
liam IV., cap. 85. 

The exceptions are Hindoos and Moham¬ 
medans in the following cases :— 

First. Actions regarding inheritance and 
succession to lands, rents, and goods, and all 
matters of contract and dealing between party 
and party in which both parties are Hindoos. 
Such cases are to be determined by the laws 
and usages of Hindoos. 

Secondly. Actions of the same kind where 
both parties are Mohammedans ; and in these 
the case is to be determined by the laws and 
usages of Mohammedans. 

Thirdly. Actions of the same kind where 
only one of the parties is a Mohammedan or 
Hindoo-; and these are to be determined by 
the laws and usages of the defendant. 

The procedure on the different sides of 
court is similar to the procedure of the 
corresponding courts in England, with this 
difference—that, as directed by the charter, 
the vivd voce examinations of witnesses, are 
taken down in writing, and the deposi¬ 
tions are signed by the witnesses them¬ 
selves. The new rules in law and equity 
passed from time to time in this country are 
quickly adopted by the judges in India, as 
far as circumstances will admit, and applied 
with the requisite modifications to their own 
practice. 

In all suits where the property in dispute 
is above the value of ten thousand rupees 
(£1000) there is a right of appeal to her ma¬ 
jesty in council. 

The supreme court consists of a chief 
justice and two other judges. It appoints its 
own ministerial officers, who are paid by 
salaries. The court admits and enrols as 
many advocates and attorneys as it thinks 
proper, and none other can plead or in any 
way act for parties in suits. The qualifica¬ 
tion of advocates is having been called to the 
English or Irish bar, or having been entitled 
to practise as an advocate in Scotland. The 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


Chap. XV.] 

court has, however, the power to admit per¬ 
sons who have not this general qualification. 
The qualification for admission as an attorney 
is, that the applicant has been admitted an 
attorney of one of her majesty’s principal 
courts of record in England or Ireland, or a 
writer to the signet in Scotland, or a member 
ot the society of solicitors practising before 
the court of session there, or that he has 
served a regular clerkship before the court of 
session there, or that he has served a regular 
clerkship of five years, under a contract in 
writing to some attorney practising in the 
court, or that he is or has been a principal 
clerk to one of the judges. The advocates 
and attorneys practise under the same names 
as in England. 

The annual expense of the supreme court 
is nearly half a million of rupees. Nearly 
half of this sum is appropriated to the salaries 
of the judges. The salaries of the officers 
and general expenses consume the remainder. 
There is, in addition to this expenditure, the 
emolument of the registrar, which is supplied 
by fees on the estates of persons dying in¬ 
testate. 

The supreme court of judicature at Madras 
consists of a chief-justice and two other 
judges, who must have previously been bar¬ 
risters of five years’ standing at the English 
or Irish bar. The powers and jurisdictions of 
the court within the presidency are generally 
the same as those in Bengal,—under the su¬ 
preme court at Fort William. 

The supreme court of judicature at Bom¬ 
bay is constituted in a similar manner to that 
of Madras. 

The laws and judicial proceedings in refer¬ 
ence to the native population are founded in 
the native systems of jurisprudence which 
existed before the advent of English power. 
The modifications of these systems latterly 
adopted have, however, been important. The 
object is to administer the law to every man 
according to his religion or nationality; and 
when the parties at variance do not possess a 
common religion or nationality, the custom 
of the place regulates the decision; and if 
there be no established custom in connection 
with the matter in question, the law to which 
the defendant has ostensibly held himself 
amenable is that which measures the admin¬ 
istration of justice. 

In the Bombay presidency Mohammedan 
law is but little known. There the Elphin- 
stone code, compiled by Mr. Elphinstone 
when governor of that presidency, generally 
prevails. It only has effect where natives 
are concerned ; and although both civil 
and criminal, it operates chiefly on civil 
disputes. 


31J 

Civil Courts. —The principles of these 
courts are generally the same, but differences 
exist in different parts of India in the prac¬ 
tice and the designations of the officers. 

The lowest class of civil courts are pre¬ 
sided over by natives. The moonsif (a name 
of Arabic derivation, signifying judge) has a 
district allotted to him, and is empowered to 
decide upon questions of property, whether 
“ real or personal.” In Bombay this right 
extends to disputes concerning property of 
£500 in value; in Madras of £100 in value; 
elsewhere the property cannot exceed a 
valuation of £30. This class of judge is 
generally nominated from vakeels (Arabic for 
agent or attorney), after they have undergone 
a general examination. The salaries of £15 
and £10 per mensem are given to the moon- 
sifs, according to their grade. 

The sudder aumeens (the word aumeen is 
Arabic, and means chief trustee) constitute a 
higher class of judges, and receive £25 per 
mensem. There are also principal suddei 
aumeens, who receive from £40 to £60 pel 
mensem respectively, according to their rank, 
which depends upon their capacity. 

The zillah judges are Europeans (a zillah 
is a large section of territory), and always 
belong to the covenanted service of the com¬ 
pany. Appeals from the native judges may 
be made to the zillah. He tries all original 
suits above £500, but has power to refer 
them to the principal sudder aumeens, which 
it is the practice very generally to do. The 
zillah courts are assisted by natives in various 
capacities—such as jurors, assessors, and arbi¬ 
trators. The arbitrators are generally five in 
number, and are collectively, from that cir¬ 
cumstance, called a punchayet. 

In proceedings the plaint must be lodged 
on a stamp proportioned to the amount of 
claim. The pleadings are in writing. Wit¬ 
nesses are not subject to cross-examination. 
An appeal lies from the zillah to the court of 
sudder dewaung adawhut (the chief civil jus¬ 
tice). There are four of these courts in the 
four governments—viz., one in the chief city 
of each presidency, and one in the capital of 
the lieutenant-governancy of the north-west. 
The judges are members of the covenanted 
civil service, and men of much experience. 
These courts entertain no original cases ; they 
are courts of appeal, and their decision is 
final. The courts sit daily, except during such 
native festivals as render the transaction of 
business impossible. The salary of the judges 
is £4200 per annum. Although the deci¬ 
sions in these courts are considered final, as 
the highest courts of law, there is, neverthe¬ 
less, an appeal from thence to her majesty in 
council. 




320 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[CHAr. XV. 


Criminal Law. —There is some diversity in 
the criminal administration. It is generally 
grounded upon the Mohammedan law : the 
diversities are, for the most part, English 
modifications. 

In Bengal, beyond the capital, each dis¬ 
trict is committed to a magistrate, and con¬ 
tains fifteen or twenty subdivisions or thanahs, 
each of which, is placed under a subordinate 
officer, called a thanadar or darogah. Each 
of these last-named functionaries has under 
him the following establishment:—a clerk or 
writer, a jemadar or sergeant, and twenty or 
thirty policemen. The darogahs are gene¬ 
rally Mohammedans or Hindoos. Besides 
this machinery for the apprehension of cri¬ 
minals, there are also a large number of 
village police or watchmen, appointed by the 
village committees, or by the zemindars. 
These functionaries, who are not generally 
supposed to he very efficient, amount, in 
Bengal proper, to the large number of one 
hundred and seventy thousand. The da¬ 
rogahs, or inspectors of police, are invested 
with a certain measure of summary authority 
in cases of affrays, disturbances of the peace, 
&c., hut are bound to bring all other matters 
under the previous cognizance of the magis¬ 
trate, who has the power of punishment to 
the extent of imprisonment for two years in 
certain cases, in some others for three years; 
hut ordinarily his power extends to imprison¬ 
ment for six months, and a fine of two hun¬ 
dred rupees, and if the fine he not paid, to a 
further imprisonment of six months. Cor¬ 
poral punishment was abolished by Lord 
William Bentinck, but has since been revived 
in case of theft, where the property stolen does 
not exceed fifty rupees in value, and for 
juvenile offenders, as well as in certain crimes 
committed by convicts. 

The sessions judge is the officer next in 
the ascending scale of rank, and appeals lie 
to him in certain cases from the magistrate. 
He is the same individual who acts in a civil 
capacity, before mentioned, as zillah judge. 
In Bengal his original jurisdiction is limited 
to offenders committed by the magistrate to 
take their trial at the sessions. 

In Madras, the sessions judge is aided by 
a subordinate judge, who acts -as committing 
officer instead of magistrate. In Bombay the 
sessions judge is aided by an officer called the 
“ assistant sessions judge.” 

The sessions judge has the power of punish¬ 
ment to the extent of nine years’ imprison¬ 
ment, and, in certain aggravated cases, of 
sixteen years. All cases involving punish¬ 
ments above those limits are referred to the 
sudder court, which is composed of the same 
judges as the supreme court of civil appeal, 


called the sudder nizamut * adawlut, in Ben¬ 
gal, and the foujdary\ adawlut in Madias 
and Bombay. This court decides on the 
record and report of the sessions judge. It 
never hears oral evidence; but if the case 
requires more elucidation, sends it back to 
the sessions judge, with orders to take further 
evidence on particular points; and its ulti¬ 
mate decision is final. 

If the judges of the nizamut concur in the 
verdict pf the lower court, and the prisoner 
be considered deserving of a higher degree 
of punishment than could be awarded by the 
sessions judge, he may he sentenced to suffer 
death, or to undergo imprisonment for twenty- 
one years; but if sentenced to imprisonment 
for life, then transportation for life, either to 
the penal settlements of Singapore, Penang, 
or Malacca, the Tenesserim provinces, Arra- 
can, or Aden, would he substituted; but no 
native of India can he transported beyond 
the company’s territories. If the case be 
not capital, it is decided by the sentence of 
a single judge. Sentences of death require 
the concurrence of two judges. The govern¬ 
ment has the power of pardon or mitigation, 
hut it is seldom exercised. 

There are in Bengal two modes of trial, 
in one of which a Mohammedan law officer, 
or assessor, expounds the law; hut if the 
prisoner is not a Mohammedan, he may re¬ 
fuse to be so tried, and for such eases there 
is a system of juries, or assessors, or pun- 
chayet. The sessions judge may reject the 
opinion of the Mohammedan law officer, on 
points expressly provided for by the regula¬ 
tions, and that opinion may he overridden 
altogether by the sudder court. When the 
ease is tried with a jury, or puncbayet, the 
decision may he overruled, and sentence 
awarded to the extent of the judge’s com¬ 
petence. Cases tried by the magistrate are 
generally prosecuted by the party injured. 

With respect to Madras and other parts of 
British India, except Bombay, it may he 
stated generally that the system of criminal 
administration, though differing in some par¬ 
ticulars, is based on the same general prin¬ 
ciples as that existing in Bengal. The 
police, who are in Bengal and Bombay placed 
under the command in chief of a supei- 
intendent, specially charged with that duty, 
are in Madras placed under the governor in 
council, and in the north-west provinces under 

* Nizamut is an Arabic word, which means “ arrange¬ 
ment, or reducing to orderand governors of provinces 
under the Mohammedan government were sometimes de¬ 
signated by names derived from the same root, as the 
nazim and the nizam. 

f From foujdar, the general, or holder of a fouj or 
army. 





Chap. XV.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


321 


the commissioners of revenue. In the Pun- 
jaub there is a military preventive police of 
foot and horse, who furnish guards for jails, 
treasuries, frontier-posts, and escort of trea¬ 
sure. 

It may also be noticed that, with respect 
to the professional criminals peculiar to India, 
called Thugs and Dacoits, a special police, 
invested with summary powers, is organized 
under one superintendent for all India.* 

Law reform in India has been for a con¬ 
siderable time engaging the attention of 
government. Under the statute 3 & 4 Wil¬ 
liam IV., a commission for this purpose was 
appointed, and “the Indian law commis¬ 
sioners ” reported elaborately, recommending 
vai’ious reforms. By section 28 of 16 & 17 
Victoria, chapter 95, her majesty was em¬ 
powered to appoint commissioners in England 
to consider and report upon these proposed 
reforms. Accordingly, at the close of 1853, 
a commission was appointed, consisting of 
very able persons—viz., Sir John Komilly, 
Sir John Jervis, Sir Richard Ryan, C. H. 
Cameron, J. M. Macleod, I. A. F. Hawkins, 
T. F. Ellis, and R. Lowe. Subsequently 
Mr. Hawkins accepted the post of secretary 
to the committee, and the name of W. Millet 
was substituted, March 17,1854. A quorum 
of three of the commissioners had power to 
call for persons and papers according to their 
discretion, for the purposes of their investi¬ 
gation. Four reports were presented by 
these commissioners—the last bearing date 
May 20, 1856. The reports thus prepared 
were sent out to India, but the occurrence 
of the mutiny rendered it impossible that they 
could receive from the authorities there the 
necessary consideration. In England men 
acquainted with Indian affairs have not ac¬ 
quiesced in all the recommendations of the 
commissioners; nor were they unanimous 
—two of their number especially dissenting 
from some of the reports, and finally retiring 
from the commission. These gentlemen were 
Lord -chief-justice Jervis and Mr. Lowe. 
This circumstance caused much discussion as 
to the reports, especially the second and 
fourth, which these gentlemen refused to 
sign. 

That a sweeping reform is necessary, all 
who know India will admit. The native 
courts are very imperfect, so far as the modus 
operandi is concerned, and very generally 
deficient as to the essence of justice itself. 
The native witnesses, juries, and police, are 
utterly corrupt and perjurious. Whether 
the interests or feelings of the native officials 

* Compiled by Arthur Mills, Esq., M. P., from the 
acts relating to India. 

VOL. I. 


be for or against the government, they are 
rapacious, unjust, and cruel. Some of the 
most barefaced robberies and barbarous out¬ 
rages committed in India are perpetrated by 
native officials in the name of the government, 
and without the knowledge (in the individual 
cases) of the European officers. 

Much advantage has been taken, upon the 
continent of Europe, of these facts to spread 
abroad a feeling throughout the world that 
the government of India is unjust and op¬ 
pressive. In the celebrated French pamphlet 
lately published at Paris, and alleged to have 
been written by a Crimean general, such use 
is made of a fact morally injurious to the 
government of India, yet which never re¬ 
ceived its countenance, and against which its 
strenuous efforts have been put forth. In 
the presidency of Madras native agents have 
employed torture upon native tenants to 
extort revenue, and the writer of the pam¬ 
phlet might have known the truth had he 
chosen to make inquiry at the proper source, 
instead of catching up such a version of the 
fact as implicates the government of India in 
acts which it abhors. “ For forty-six years 
the East India Company has ignored the 
facts, or rather allowed them to be committed. 
The company has its agents, who employ 
torture to wring their last farthing from poor 
peasants, and that money, wet with blood 
and tears, is not employed either in the 
material well-being of the people or in the 
improvement of their intelligence; it enters 
the coffers of the company, or those of the 
English government, and gives high salaries 
to the employes , and good dividends to the 
shareholders. The Indians—those tigers 
with human faces, as the Times calls them— 
at last revolt; those ‘ capricious and violent 
animals,’ treated with contempt, and op¬ 
pressed beyond measure, rise on their op¬ 
pressors ; they desire to shake off the English 
yoke and English oppression, and to free 
themselves from English contempt; they 
desire to oppose the return of torture; they 
have forty-six years of torture to pay back 
on England, and they take up arms.” After 
describing the manner in which the Hindoos 
are tortured by the company, he exclaims :— 
“ Certainly, never did the imagination of 
the executioners of the middle ages, nor 
that of the most ferocious planters of America, 
devise more atrocious means to torture human 
creatures; and if any one, and the least cruel, 
of those means, had ever been applied by 
order of the Emperor of Austria or the King 
of Naples, England would have sent forth 
shouts of indignation, and the names of those 
two sovereigns would be to this day affixed to 
the pillory of public indignation. These tor- 

T T 






322 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XV. 


tures are inflicted in the nineteenth century 
on the unfortunate Indians, and their object 
is the collection of the imposts which are 
applied to pay the huge salaries of the Eng¬ 
lish functionaries, younger sons of great Eng¬ 
lish families, and the dividends of the com¬ 
pany’s shareholders. English philanthropy 
does not think it necessary to stir itself.” 
False as this malevolent allegation of modern 
French hatred to England is, so far as it 
reflects upon either the government of India, 
the provocatives of the Indian mutiny, or the 
feelings of English philanthropists, yet it dis¬ 
closes how the actual evils of administration 
and misdeeds of native officers have involved 
the government and the name of England in 
odium. It is essential to the future prosperity 
of India, to the cause of justice, and to the 
renown of England, that the native courts 
should be literally ransacked by the hand of 
a stern investigation, and such means adopted 
as are possible to rid the government of the 
dishonour of those classes of native function¬ 
aries who are amongst the most corrupt, per¬ 
jurious, and cruel of mankind. Justice de¬ 
mands the admission that the company has 
been for some time putting in force its powers 
to effect administrative reform in all descrip¬ 
tions of courts and offices, and in the new 
governments the measures taken have been in 
consonance with British sense of justice, and 
with native rights. 

The late Sir Henry Lawrence, in one of 
,his early reports of the commission in the 
Sikh territory, thus describes the policy pur¬ 
sued in reference to local and native institu¬ 
tions, showing that a wise superintendence 
may turn them to account, notwithstanding 
the danger of intrusting to native hands alone 
the dispensing of justice :—“ Each city in the 
Punjaub is managed by a body of men called 
punches; they answer to our corporations in 
England. The office is chiefly hereditary, 
but not always so. If the hereditary talent 
is weak, an infusion of able and intelligent 
men, by common consent, is permitted. The 
government of the day sometimes, but very 
rarely, deposed an obnoxious member of the 
corporation. On the death of one of the 
members, the government presented a khillut 
to his heir, thus recognising his succession to 
the office. The district officer who obtains 
the co-operation of this body can do any¬ 
thing; without it he is helpless. The go¬ 
vernor-general last year conferred the title 
of raie and rai buhadoor on the members and 
leaders of the Umritsur punch, which distin¬ 
guished honour gratified them much, and had 
the most happy effect.” 

The directors, in their late appeal, have 
reasonably maintained that the expense of 


administering justice by European agency 
over so vast a field, and to so many millions 
of people, would be too great for any one to 
affirm its practicability. This, however, is cer¬ 
tain, that if native agency be “ not a question of 
expediency, but of necessity,” security should 
be taken far more rigidly than has as yet 
been done for the character of the officials to 
whom any trust is committed. The following 
statement of the chairman and deputy-chair- 
man is undoubtedly beyond controversy:— 
“ Since the first institution of the legislative 
council, few years have passed in which there 
have not been one or two legislative measures 
for the improvement of the procedure of the 
civil courts. The object of some has been 
to facilitate the progress of suits through their 
various stages; of others, to secure the cor¬ 
rect recording of the judgment, by prescrib¬ 
ing that it shall be made by the judge him¬ 
self ; of others, to insure a more speedy and 
certain execution of judgments; of others, to 
render more efficient the systems of regular 
and special appeals. Legislative measures 
have also been taken for reforming the law 
of evidence; for the abolition of Persian as 
the language of record; and for putting the 
office of native pleader on a more efficient and 
respectable footing. The defects of the cri¬ 
minal courts have likewise largely engaged 
the attention of the legislature, and much has 
been done for their improvement. But not¬ 
withstanding these partial amendments, it 
cannot be said that the courts, in what are 
called the regulation provinces, have yet been 
freed from their radical defects. The prin¬ 
cipal impediments to a good administration of 
justice are, the complicated and technical 
system of pleading in the civil courts, and 
in the criminal courts the character of the 
police.” 

In the regulation provinces the administra¬ 
tion of justice is baulked by tedious processes 
and endless technicalities. Justice is neither 
swift nor cheap; and the late Mr. Colvin ad¬ 
mitted that even in the north-west provinces 
the courts of justice were regarded by the 
people with dislike. 

In the non-regulation provinces the go¬ 
vernment has shaken off the fetters of pre¬ 
scription and routine, and, trusting these new 
states to the hands of gifted administrators, 
justice is dispensed without favour, and freely. 
The following report on this subject, by Sir 
John Lawrence, from the Punjaub, will be 
read with interest by all who wish in Eng¬ 
land as well as India, cheap and speedy 
justice :—“No effort has been spared to ren¬ 
der justice cheap, quick, sure, simple, and 
substantial; every other consideration has 
been rendered subordinate to these cardinal 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


323 


Chap. XV.] 

points. We are, indeed, without elaborate 
laws, but we have brief rules, explaining, in 
an accessible form, the main provisions of the 
several systems of native law on such matters 
as inheritance, marriage, adoption, testamen¬ 
tary or other disposition of property; and 
setting forth the chief principles to be ob¬ 
served in other branches of law—such as 
contracts, sale, mortgage, debt, commercial 
usage. We have the most open and liberal 
provisions for the admission of evidence. 
We have complete arrangements for refer¬ 
ence to arbitration, and for the ascertainment 
of local custom. We-have a procedure with¬ 
out any pretension to technical exactitude, 
but a procedure which provides for the liti¬ 
gants and their respective witnesses being 
confronted in open court, for a decision being 
arrived at immediately after this brief forensic 
controversy, and for judgment being delivered 
to the parties then and there. We have a 
method of executing decrees which, while it 
allows no door to be opened for evasion or 
delay on the part of the defendant, and thus 
renders a decree really valuable to the plaintiff, 
as being capable of ready enforcement, and 
gives him his right free from lien, encum¬ 
brance, or doubt, yet, on the other hand, 
prevents the defendant from being hastily 
dealt with, or from being placed at the mercy 
of his creditor. We have small-cause courts 
scattered all over the country, and several 
regular courts at every central station, so that 
everywhere justice is near. Our civil system 
may appear rough and ready; whether it 
would be suited to other provinces, in a dif¬ 
ferent stage of civilization, and with a dif¬ 
ferent machinery at command, may be a 
question, but in the Punjaub it attains the 
broad and plain object aimed at, and without 
doubt gives satisfaction to the people. But 
in order to regulate the administration of 
justice, a complete system of reporting has 
been established. Month by month the 
reports of every court are transmitted to the 
judicial department at head-quarters, and 
are there criticized. At the close of each 
year these reports, and the figures embodied 
in them, are collated, averages are struck, 
division is compared with division, and dis¬ 
trict with district, and the general result, 
with a brief critique by superior authority, 
indicating the defects to be avoided, and the 
reforms to be emulated, is published for the 
information of all officers concerned. It is 
believed that many improvements in the 
working of the courts are traceable to this 
system. Every court works under a constant 
sense of supervision, and with the great 
objects to be aimed at perpetually in view, 
and standing out in strong relief,” 


One of the greatest evils in connection 
with the police system in portions of the old 
provinces has been the union of police and 
revenue functions in the same persons. These 
persons were ill-paid natives, whose interest 
it was to extort for their employers, unless 
bribed by the tenants. This accounted 
for the torture at Madras, and for many of 
the acknowledged evils which until lately 
prevailed in Bombay. Since the administra¬ 
tion of Sir George Clerk in the latter presi¬ 
dency, the two classes of functions have ceased 
to be combined in the duties of the same 
functionaries. In the general superintend¬ 
ence of the men a better order and more 
vigilant oversight is now maintained. Before 
the mutiny broke out the directors had re¬ 
commended the government in India to carry 
out the principle of separating revenue and 
criminal jurisdiction on the part of the police 
throughout India; also to secure efficient 
European command over all departments of 
this description of force. The police system 
of the Punjaub is that which the directors 
have decided upon as their model, and em¬ 
powered the government in India to adopt it in 
Bengal, upon its judgment of the expediency 
of so doing, as ofcciisioii may prove opportune. 
The police-system of the Punjaub is as fol¬ 
lows :—It consists of two parts—the preven¬ 
tive; with a military organization, and the 
detective, with a civil organization. The pre¬ 
ventive police consists of- foot and horse; 
each regiment has its own native commandant, 
and the whole force is superintended by four 
European officers. Both arms of the service 
are regularly armed and equipped, and are 
ready at a moment’s notice to reinforce the 
civil police. The civil police consists, first, of 
a regular establishment, paid by the state; 
secondly, of the city watchmen, paid from a 
fund raised by the levy of town duties ; and, 
thirdly, of the village police, nominated by 
the landholders, confirmed in their offices by 
the magistrate, and paid by the villagers. 
The infantry of the-military preventive police 
furnish guards for-- jails, treasuries, frontier 
posts, and city gates, and escorts for treasure. 
The cavalry are posted in detachments at 
the civil stations; and smaller parties, sta¬ 
tioned at convenient intervals along the grand 
lines of road, serve as mounted patrols. The 
general duties of the civil police consist in 
reporting crimes, tracking and arresting cri¬ 
minals, and procuring evidence against them.* 
It is impossible to doubt that if this system 
be carried out through India under competent 
European officers, and under such modifica • 
tions as the different provinces require, that 
* Memorandum, of Improvements in India bp the 
Court of Directors, 







324 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XV. 


the administration of justice will be greatly 
aided, and the suppression of crime decisively 
promoted. 

The East India Company has in its own 
civil service the machinery with which to 
work for the reform in civil and criminal 
administration, which, although in progress, 
requires a still more rapid and decided de¬ 
velopment. The following language of one. 
whose experience well qualified him to give 
an opinion should have due weight with the 
English public :—“ Let us hope, therefore, 
that whatever may be the changes to be 
made in the controlling authority at home, 
the administrative power in India may be 
allowed to remain in the hands of an official 
body, set apart from their youth for this 
special duty, and whose primary object it 
may be to administer the country for the 
benefit of its inhabitants, trusting thus best 
to promote the real interests of their own 
parent-land. It is immaterial whether the 
body into whose hands the internal govern¬ 
ment is to be intrusted shall be called the 
civil service, or receive any other appellation, 
provided the principle be maintained of em¬ 
ploying in the territorial government of India 
those only who have been educated and 
trained expressly for that duty. If a know¬ 
ledge of English law shall really prove to be 
a requisite for the efficient discharge of civil 
functions, the addition of a few years to the 
prescribed age of admission will probably 
bring what is wanted into the ranks of the 
civil service.” * 

The full extent of the contemplated police 
reforms in India may be seen by the reader 
in the return made to an order of the Honour¬ 
able the House of Commons, dated the 5th of 
February, 1858. This return consists in a 
copy of India judicial despatch of the 4th of 
November, 1857, No. 61, and Madras judicial 
despatch, dated the 30th of September, 1857, 
No. 13, relative to police. From these re¬ 
turns, it appears that the board of directors 
called the attention of the governor-general 
to this subject on the 24th of September, 1856, 
their despatch being based upon the minutes 
of the lieutenant-governor of Bengal, dated 
the 30th of April, 1856, relative to the ad¬ 
ministration of criminal justice and police. 
The following passages from the despatch 
shows the desire of the directors to reform 
the existing police system, and the obstruc¬ 
tion given to their views by the governor- 
general in council:— 

“ The leading features of the reform sug¬ 
gested in our despatch of the 24th of Septem- 

* Thomas Campbell Robertson, late a member of the 
supreme council of India, and lieutenant-governor of the 
north-western provinces. 


ber, 1856, were the organization of a well- 
armed, equipped, and disciplined police force, 
upon a plan common for all India; the sepa¬ 
ration of the police from the administration 
of the land revenue ; the division of the police 
into separate portions, as preventive and de¬ 
tective ; the transfer of the management of 
the district police from the magistrates to an 
European officer, with no other duties, and 
responsible to a general superintendent of 
police for the whole presidency or lieutenant- 
governorship, and an increase to the pay of 
the police, in order to raise their status, and 
to secure their honest and efficient service. 

“ You are of opinion, that ‘ it is better to 
deal with each presidency separately, accord¬ 
ing to its own merits, subject to those leading 
principles which should be common to all, 
than to endeavour to frame a general scheme 
for the whole of India,’ and you have begun 
with the lower provinces of the Bengal presi¬ 
dency, in which the reform is perhaps more 
loudly called for than any other part of 
India. 

“ As the subordinate police establishments 
of the regulation provinces in the territories 
subject to the lieutenant-governor of Bengal, 
are distinct from those entertained for the 
administration of the land revenue, the ques¬ 
tion of their separation has not come under 
your consideration on the present occasion. 

“ In regard to the Bengal police, you are 
of opinion that it should not be ‘ after a mili¬ 
tary fashion;’ that the appointment of one 
superintendent of police for the whole of the 
lower provinces is not expedient; and that 
the existing system of dividing the country 
into manageable tracts, consisting of four or 
five districts, and placing each division under 
the superintendence of a commissioner, hav¬ 
ing authority in all executive departments, 
including the police, is the best which has 
yet been devised for India, and one which 
works well in Bengal, as well as elsewhere, 
wherever it has been introduced; that a 
movable corps of station guards, or military 
police, should be attached to each division 
employed ordinarily in station and escort 
duties, but ready to assist the civil police in 
case of need; that, to provide for the closer 
supervision of the subordinate police, the 
number of deputy-magistrates should be con¬ 
siderably increased, and that the pay of the 
police should be raised. 

“ The general result, then, of your recom¬ 
mendation is the maintenance of the police in 
Bengal very much upon the existing system, 
but paid at higher rates than is the case at 
present, and strengthened and assisted by 
divisional corps of a semi-military character.” 

The directors then refer to the great Indian 




Chap. XVI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


325 


authorities—such as Sir John Lawrence, Mr. 
Colvin, &c.—whose views favoured the adop¬ 
tion of the plans recommended for the consi¬ 
deration of the governor-general in council, 
which the directors still commend, but do 
not enforce, deferring to the wisdom and zeal 
of the actual government in India. It is im¬ 
possible to give attention to this subject with¬ 
out coming to the conclusion that the Punjaub 
system is in the main applicable to Bengal, 


both in the upper and lower provinces, and 
that the opinion of the directors was based 
upon a sounder view of the requisites of the 
country, and the adaptations of the change 
proposed, than that of the governor-general 
and his council. The mutiny threw more 
light upon the question, and further, and 
strongly, afforded confirmation of the jus¬ 
tice and wisdom of the scheme which the 
directors had approved. 


CHAPTER XVI. 

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE BRITISH INDIAN EMPIRE {Continued). 


PUBLIC WORKS. 

Under this head a considerable outlay takes 
place, to which it is unnecessary in this chapter 
to give more than a passing notice, that de¬ 
scription of expenditure having been referred 
to on former pages. The votes for pur¬ 
poses of religion and education are of this 
character. When describing the religions of 
India, and the state of education, the part 
taken by the government in connection with 
these matters was stated and discussed. 
Churches are built, large sums of money 
expended on bishops, clergy, and chaplains, 
a small amount given to clergymen of the 
Church of Scotland, and various religious 
societies have aids granted to their schools 
for the purpose of educating the natives. 
The policy of this is arraigned by many, 
including those sects which object to the 
interference of government in matters of 
religion, and by many who approve of the 
endowment system, but consider it inapplic¬ 
able to India. On the other hand, the direc¬ 
tors, the Board of Control, and the govern¬ 
ment of India, are pressed exceedingly by all 
sorts of claimants among the religious deno¬ 
minations who advocate the state endowment 
of religion; and, under the plea of education, 
money is solicited and granted which virtually 
amounts to an endowment of the particular 
creed on behalf of which it is given. All 
classes approve of regimental chaplains, but a 
section of the English public would confine 
those appointments to ministers of the Estab¬ 
lished Church: a still larger section would 
extend the appointments to clergymen of the 
Church of Scotland, but exclude the Roman 
Catholic clergy, who, on their part, claim a 
recognition of equal rights, and a provision 
for the religious instruction and consolation 
of the Roman Catholic soldiers, as extensive 
as that which is admitted to be necessary for 
their Protestant comrades. 


Large sums of money are given for native 
schools, mosques, and temples, against which 
the earnest religious public of England pro¬ 
test, as an identification of the British nation 
with idolatry, and Mohammedanism. This 
protest is perhaps most ardently urged by 
those who are the chief claimants for churches 
and schools as instruments for propagating 
Christianity. These questions have exceed¬ 
ingly embarrassed the directors, who have 
generally been, on principle, opposed to all 
endowments of Christian sects in India, 
although willing to recognise such provisions 
for the support of temples and mosques as 
they found in actual existence when the ter¬ 
ritories where those structures stand became 
British property. It has generally been 
under the pressure of English public opinion, 
more especially exercised upon the imperial 
government, and at the instance of the latter 
irrespective of such popular pressure, that the 
directors have interfered with native, or insti¬ 
tuted Christian, endowments. 

It has been shown on former pages that 
the superior officers of the company have 
been generally too ready to conciliate Brah- 
minical and Mohammedan prejudices by gifts 
and grants of public money for their religious 
purposes, some of them being of the most fana¬ 
tical, cruel, and corrupt kind. The Lawrences, 
in the Punjaub, have been especially adduced 
as instances of this, at a time when it was in 
their power to have shown that the govern¬ 
ment was determined, upon principle, not to 
contribute in any way to the support of Mo¬ 
hammedan and idolatrous institutions, how¬ 
ever willing to recognise endowments which it 
found in existence when its rule was established. 

Of late the directors have gone with the 
tide of English opinion, and endeavoured 
gradually to sever their connection with all 
idolatrous and Moslem institutions on the 
one hand, while they have extended a more 





326 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[OiiA'r. XVI. 


liberal hand to Christian churches and schools 
on the other. This has been as impolitic as 
unrighteous. It is simply unjust to apply 
the public moneys gathered from the followers 
of Mohammed, or Buddha, or Vishnu, to 
purposes of a religious nature, hostile to the 
sincere prejudices of those who pay the taxes 
thus applied. The injustice of this is so 
obvious, that it is marvellous how men can 
be rendered by their prejudices so little dis¬ 
passionate as not to perceive how inequitable 
is such a course. It is also impolitic : the reli¬ 
gious establishments of India have affected 
the minds of the natives most unfavourably 
towards the English government and nation. 
It is notorious that they entertain no 
hostility to voluntary missions, nor is the 
anger of the heathen generally awak¬ 
ened by arguments against his creed, al¬ 
though the Mohammedans are in this respect 
intolerant. When, however, any description 
of missionaries adopt language which in the 
least implies that the authority of government 
is to be, or ought to be, imparted to the con¬ 
troversy, the people are susceptible of great 
alarm for their faith. They do not fear its 
being overturned by argument; but their 
terror of its being overturned by law may be 
aroused by the smallest deviation from the 
appearance of government impartiality. The 
natives are perfectly aware that some of the 
Christian sects are connected with govern¬ 
ment, while others labour, or have laboured, 
independently of its patronage or control, 
and were even objects of official jealousy. 
Whatever falls from the lips of the mission¬ 
aries identified with the state is noted by the 
natives carefully, and whenever any impru¬ 
dent expression escapes these good men as 
to the desireableness of suppressing caste or 
religious custom, however qualified the lan¬ 
guage, it is caught up, and circulated with 
that facility for circulating reports character¬ 
istic of Asiatics. In like manner, every 
Christian church, and every Christian school, 
supported out of the public taxation of India, 
is regarded by the natives as a standing 
memorial of subjugation, not merely of their 
nationality, which is comparatively little 
valued, but of their religion. These facts are 
denied by many clergymen and civilians, who 
allege that the people are too ignorant to 
understand such matters. This is a mistake. 
Some of course are too ignorant to compre¬ 
hend any question of religion or policy, but 
they are all well enough informed to know 
that the religions of Hindoostan and of Eng¬ 
land are different, and that the former is in 
danger of being supplanted by the latter. 
They perceive that the change is taking place 
by the progress of opinion; they submit un¬ 


murmuringly, and call it destiny; but if they 
conceive that it is taking place by the action 
of a government which professes not to use its 
power or authority, as a government, for 
any such purpose, they deem it faithless, cease 
to regard it with loyalty, consider, even if 
they have “eaten its salt,” that they are 
released from their allegiance by the breach 
of faith, and await the first opportune occa¬ 
sion to free their religion from the perils 
which heset it. The whole tone of the lan¬ 
guage used by the revolted sepoys shows that 
they feared, not so much open violence, as 
covert and indirect action on the part of the 
government against their religion. It is im¬ 
possible to look at the facts upon which they 
rested such conclusions, and say that their 
fears were unreasonable, although every Eng¬ 
lishman knows that the East India Company 
never intended to take any step, such as it 
considered to be an unjust interference with 
the popular religions of the native army or 
people. It is a delusion to suppose that the 
natives do not consider such questions, and it 
is sheer folly to deny that the whole popula¬ 
tion of India is on the cjui vive as to what the 
government may next do which is substan¬ 
tially, although not ostensibly, an authoritative 
interference with their religion. Missionaries 
of the stamp to which a reply is here made 
affirm that intelligent natives, when con¬ 
versed with on the subject, have expressed 
their approbation of the government building 
churches, and aiding Christian schools. No 
doubt they have, but the educated natives, 
as well as the masses, have what, in common 
parlance among themselves, is called “two 
faces”—one for the sahib, and one for their 
own people. After expressing in very flat¬ 
tering and flowery language their approval 
of such things, they would retire from the 
missionaries, and curse the faithlessness of 
the government which, by subterfuge and 
evasion, violated its faith as to its religious 
relation to the people. 

“ The more educated, the more bigoted,” 
is an expression which of late has passed into 
a proverb in reference to both the Brahmins 
and Mussulmen, especially the former. This 
is true, because native education is essentially 
religious; its aim is to make better heathens 
or Mohammedans, in the sense of imbuing 
the pupils more thoroughly with the respec¬ 
tive systems. Even the education of the 
English colleges makes them more bigoted, 
paradoxical as such an assertion may appear. 
Under the English collegiate and high school 
system the pupils frequently become infidel, 
but almost invariably affect or feel an attach¬ 
ment to the superstitions which they theo¬ 
retically despise, resent any indignity to 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


32? 


Chap. XVI.] 

them, and any apparent attempt to subvert 
them. It is common for these native pupils 
to acquire in their classic reading a violent 
nationality, and a longing for the liberation 
of India from a foreign yoke. This feeling 
causes them to identify themselves with 
native customs, and to cherish hostility to 
every English innovation, except it contri¬ 
bute to their own advancement or enjoy¬ 
ment. This class of men inveigh against 
the employment of public money for Chris¬ 
tian purposes of any kind, and regard the 
churches, the schools, and even the grants of 
land for such foreign religious institutions as 
injuries to their country. Articles have 
appeared in the native press ably adapted to 
fan the flame of Mussulman or Brahminical 
bigotry, which were written by nominal hea¬ 
thens, or Mussulmen who were well known 
to be infidels. It would not be difficult to 
account for these social, religious, and politi¬ 
cal phenomena on metaphysical principles 
generally recognised, but a statement of the 
facts is alone pertinent to our purpose; and 
if it be correct, then so long as the govern¬ 
ment makes grants from the taxes of India, 
under the designation of public works, for 
purposes really intended to promote the 
Christian religion, so long will discontent be 
disseminated, and disloyalty nurtured, in the 
halls of its own public seminaries. 

In what direction Indian legislation has 
lately proceeded in connection with such 
matters let the directors declare for them¬ 
selves. In their memorial, published at the 
beginning of 1858, they say :—•“ An act 
passed in 1840 gave effect to instructions 
issued by the home authorities in 1833, on 
the subject of pilgrim taxes, and the superin¬ 
tendence of native festivals. The instructions 
directed that the interference of British func¬ 
tionaries in the interior management of native 
temples, in the customs, habits, and religious 
proceedings of their priests and attendants, 
in the arrangement of their ceremonies, rites, 
and festivals, and generally in the conduct of 
their interior economy, should cease, that the 
pilgrim tax should everywhere be abolished; 
and that in all matters relating to their 
temples, their worship, their festivals, their 
religious practices, and their ceremonial ob¬ 
servances, our native subjects should be left 
entirely to themselves. Property held in trust 
for religious uses of course cannot be diverted 
from them by any act of the government; 
but if such trusts are infringed, redress must 
be sought, as in all other cases, from the tri¬ 
bunals. In 1841 the home authorities sent 
out further instructions, that no troops or 
military bands of music be called out, and 
no salutes fired, in honour of native fes¬ 


tivals ; and all such acts have since been re¬ 
garded as strictly ' prohibited. When any 
case of infringement of these principles is 
found to have been overlooked, it is, on being 
brought to notice, immediately corrected.” 
The spirit of this statement can hardly be too 
highly commended. 

A gentleman who is known to write in the 
interest of the East India Company states:— 
“ The government have of late years syste¬ 
matically resumed all religious endowments, 
an extensive inquiry has been going on into 
all endowments, grants, and pensions; and in 
almost every one in which the continuance of 
religious endowments has been recommended 
by subordinate revenue authorities, backed 
by the board of revenue, the fiat of confisca¬ 
tion has been issued by the government.” * 
This paragraph refers to the policy of the 
company towards the Brahmins and Mussul¬ 
men, not towards the Christian churches, 
which have in one form or other been hitherto 
endowed, and the endowment of which has 
been gradually becoming a heavier burthen 
upon the Indian exchequer, and a more pro¬ 
minent feature of our Indian policy. 

We learn from Mr. Arthur Mills, M.P., 
who has recently compiled a statistical work 
on India, the following as to the government 
support of Christian schools. The endowment 
of churches is too well known to require notice 
here, and has already been referred to in the 
chapter on the religions of India:—Among 
the schools entitled, under existing govern¬ 
ment regulations, to grants in aid, are those 
established at various periods by Christian 
missionary societies. The total number of 
these schools scattered throughout the various 
districts of India, including vernacular and 
English elementary schools, both for boys 
and girls, was, in 1853, 1657 schools, con¬ 
taining 64,806 scholars of both sexes. These 
schools have been chiefly established by the 
twelve following societies, placed in the order 
of the commencement of their respective ope¬ 
rations in India:— 

1727. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. 

1793. The Baptist Missionary Society. 

1805. The London Missionary Society. 

1812. The American Board of Missions. 

1814. The Wesleyan Missionary Society. 

1815. The Church Missionary Society. 

1822. The General Baptist Missions. 

1830. The Established Church of Scotland. 

1830. The Pree Church of Scotland. 

1830. The Basle Missionary Society. _ 

1834. The American Presbyterian Mission. 

1840. The American Baptist Mission. 

Several of these societies receive funds 
only for secular purposes, as the communities 
they represent adopt “the voluntary prin- 
* Mr. F. II. Robinson. 




328 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE [Chap. XVI. 


ciple.” The natives, however, do not enter 
into the distinction ; where money is received 
from the state by a religious sect for any 
purpose, they consider that sect as a govern¬ 
ment agency. 

In their efforts to be impartial, the com¬ 
pany has granted lands for schools built by 
benevolent natives, male and female, where 
the character of the education administered 
is of very doubtful advantage, either to its 
recipients or to the government. Colleges 
for general education and for medical pur¬ 
poses, as well as schools of primary and 
superior instruction have been erected at the 
government expense, and with the most 
upright and zealous desires for the mental 
cultivation and general welfare of the people. 
Hospitals and other benevolent institutions 
have also been built, and the cost of their 
support is borne by the company. This class 
of public works consists chiefly of churches, 
schools, and hospitals ; their expense is 
not generally brought to the books of the 
board of works, but accounted for under 
other heads, such as education, &c. 

Public works refer more properly according 
to the usages of the company’s government to 
canals, roads, railways, telegraphs, and cer¬ 
tain mining and agricultural experiments 
which are brought under that head. This 
department, however, has lately undergone 
a new organization. In January, 1850, the 
home authorities * expressed dissatisfaction 
with the progress made in the prosecution 
of works of public utility in India, and the 
government of India was requested to review 
the state of things with the object of reform. 
The absence of unity in action, and the divi¬ 
sion of responsibility, appeared to the direc¬ 
tors to be the causes of the slow and imper¬ 
fect progress of matters in this direction. 
Orders were issued in the despatch of the 
directors, which led to the appointment of 
presidential commissions for investigation and 
report. The result was the formation in 
each presidency of a department of public 
works with a uniform constitution. A secre¬ 
tary for the board of works was added to the 
secretariat of the Indian government. An 
activity truly wonderful sprung forth from 
these measures. The military engineers sup¬ 
plied the chief demand for professional skill, 
and they were assisted by staffs of civil 
engineers sent out from England, and by 
non-commissioned officers of the engineer 
department of the queen’s and company’s 
armies. Colleges of civil engineers have 
been established at Roorkee, at the head of 

* It is remarkable how much more frequently Indian 
reforms have originated at the India-house than in 
India, and in either than at the Board of Control. 


the Ganges, and at the capitals of the presi¬ 
dencies. 

Irrigation. —It is common for declaimers 
against the East India Company to dwell 
much upon the remains of ancient tanks and 
other appliances to irrigation, which were 
constructed and maintained by the Mohamme¬ 
dan governments, but which the company 
allowed to go out of repair. There is much 
exaggeration and untruth in these attacks. 
Some of these ruined tanks had never been 
completed. Others were in ruins when the 
territory where they were placed came into 
the possession of the British. Often, when 
this was not the case, such was the dis¬ 
turbed state of the country, through the 
conflicts and ambition of the native states in 
the neighbourhood, that it was impossible to 
attend to any works of peace. When these 
great tanks were erected, in most cases funds 
were set apart to keep them in repair; but 
during the warlike struggles which passed in 
blood and desolation around, those funds 
were lost, and the government had no means 
of repairing dilapidated tanks of vast magni¬ 
tude, unless by heavily rating a people 
already impoverished by external conflict or 
civil war. It is also a curious fact connected 
with native works of this kind, and which 
accounts for the number of them, so elo¬ 
quently descanted upon by the orators and 
writers who agitate Indian grievances, that 
native monarchs would frequently begin new 
works where old ones adequate for the 
purpose previously existed, and both be 
allowed at last to go into decay for want of 
funds. The motive of the monarchs in thus 
wastefully proceeding was the vanity of con¬ 
necting their names with the works begun by . 
themselves, to accomplish which the older 
tanks were allowed to crumble away. 

The directors have turned their attention 
to canals for irrigation. The Ganges Canal 
is the principal of these. It is not yet com¬ 
pleted in all its branches, but will ultimately 
be eight hundred and ninety-eight miles and 
a half in length, and will, it is calculated, 
supply with moisture four millions, five hun¬ 
dred thousand acres. “ It presents a system 
of irrigation unequalled in vastness through¬ 
out the world; while the dimensions of the 
main channel, and the stupendous works of 
masonry which occur in its course, more 
particularly in the section between Roorkee 
and Hurdwar, render the work eminently one 
of national distinction and honour.” * The 
cost of this great construction was £1,500,000 
up to the 1st of May, 1856, and it is esti- 

* The lieutenant-governor of the north-western pro¬ 
vinces. 





Chap. XVI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


229 


mated that the total cost will not be less 
than two millions. The irrigating utility of 
this stupendous work has only just been 
brought into operation; but it is computed 
by the directors that the annual value of 
the land at present watered by it ranges 
from £150,000, to £200,000, “ and that 
when the canal is in full use, the value 
will reach the enormous sum of £7,000,000.”* 
On the 30th of April, 1856, the canal had 
been carried so far that the water flowed 
continuously through four hundred and forty - 
nine miles and a half of the main trunk and 
terminal branches. The extent of main 
channels of distribution completed was four 
hundred and thirty-five and a half miles, 
and eight hundred and seventeen miles more 
were in active progress.f The canal has not 
yet been opened to the public for navigable 
purposes, but the government extensively 
uses it for the transport of materials. It 
closed its first year of operations 1855-6, 
with an aggregate revenue, from all sources, 
of rather mere than sixty thousand rupees, 
having watered during the year, fifty-five 
thousand acres, and having placed beyond 
the risk of serious damage from drought, an 
area of cultivation of one hundred and sixty- 
six thousand acres, distributed among one 
thousand one hundred and thirty-four vil¬ 
lages.]; 

The Western and Eastern Jumna Canals 
were of ancient construction, but had fallen into 
disrepair and become useless to the country, 
until again brought into activity by the labours 
of the company’s officers, at a sufficiently early 
date to admit of a full estimation of the 
benefits which the country has reaped from 
their restoration. The main line in the 
Western Jumna Canal is in length four hun¬ 
dred and forty-five miles. In the famine 
year, 1837-8, the gross value of crops 
saved by the water of this canal was esti¬ 
mated at £1,462,800; of which about one- 
tenth was paid to government as land and 
water rent; while the remainder supported, 
during a year of devastating famine in other 
districts, the inhabitants of nearly five hun¬ 
dred villages. 

The works originally projected for the 
restoration of the Eastern Jumna Canal were 
completed in 1830; but considerable im¬ 
provements have been effected since that 
date at a large expense. In 1853, the court 
of directors sanctioned an expenditure of 
£15,276 for improving this canal, so as to 
economize the water, facilitate its distribu¬ 
tion, and correct the malarious state of the 

* Colonel Baird Smith. 

f Sir Proby Cautley. 

| Colonel Baird Smith. 

VOL. I. 


country on its banks. It is stated, that on 
the 1st of May, 1852, the clear profit to go¬ 
vernment on this canal had been £9759.* 

The canal system is of great utility in the 
Punjaub. Canals are of two kinds, “inunda¬ 
tive ” and “ permanent.”]* The first named 
are cut from the rivers which are empty in 
winter, but when spring comes, they are 
filled by the melting of the snow on the 
mountains, and the water as it rises, flows 
into the canals, and continues to supply them 
until far on in the autumn. Many of these 
have been repaired and rendered once more 
fit for purposes of irrigation, and estimates 
have been proposed by order of the commis¬ 
sioners of the Punjaub for the repair or recon¬ 
struction of others. The second class of 
canals named—the “ permanent,” are, how¬ 
ever, most in favour with the commissioners, 
and as funds can be spared the construction 
of such is contemplated. 

In 1849, the enlargement and extension of 
the Huslee Canal, stated to be capable of irri¬ 
gating seventy thousand begahs of land, was 
sanctioned, and it is now in good working 
order. But this will ultimately be superseded 
by the Baree Doab Canal for irrigation and 
navigation. The length of this new work is 
about four hundred and fifty miles ; the ori¬ 
ginal estimate of the cost was £530,000; but 
more extensive works than were at first ex¬ 
pected having been found necessary, and the 
rates of labour having proved much dearer 
than those calculated, the ultimate cost will 
fall little short of a million sterling. In May, 
1856, more than three hundred and twenty- 
five miles had been excavated; and it was 
hoped that the canal would be opened in 
1859. The expected return is twelve lacs of 
rupees, or £120,000 per annum.]; 

The following were the opinions of Sir 
Henry Lawrence and his eminent colleagues, 
when in the commission of administration for 
the Punjaub, of the character of the country in 
reference to such works ; and the passages in¬ 
dicate the duty of the British government 
in promoting irrigation :—“ The capabilities 
of the Punjaub for canal irrigation are noto¬ 
rious. It is intersected by great rivers; it is 
bounded on two sides by hills, whence pour 
down countless rivulets; the general surface 
of the land slopes southward* with a consider¬ 
able gradient. These facts at once proclaim 
it to be a country eminently adapted for 
canals. Nearly all the dynasties which have 
ruled over the five rivers have done some¬ 
thing towards irrigation; nearly every dis¬ 
trict possesses flowing canals, or else the 

* Memorial of the Court of Directors. 

f Sir Henry Lawrence. 

j Punjaub Blue-book. 

U U 





330 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XVI. 


ruins of ancient water-courses. Many of the 
valleys and plains at the base of the Himalaya 
ranges are moistened by water-cuts con¬ 
ducted from the mountain torrents. The 
people, deeply sensible of the value of these 
works, mutually combine, with an unusual 
degree of harmony and public spirit, not 
only for the construction of reservoirs, but 
also for distribution of the water, and the re¬ 
gulation of the supply. In such cases, when 
the community displays so much aptitude for 
self-government, the board consider non¬ 
interference the best policy, while they would 
always be ready to afford any aid which 
might be solicited. The Mooltan canals are 
famous, and are the sole source of the ferti¬ 
lity which surrounds that thriving mart. 
They were commenced by the Pathan go¬ 
vernors. Having fallen out of repair during 
the interregnum of anarchy which ensued on 
the invasion of Eunjeet Singh, they were im¬ 
proved and enlarged by the great Sawun 
Mull. All these canals are particularised in 
the revenue section. It will be sufficient 
to observe, that assistance for repairs and 
for other details of management is furnished 
when required, but that the general con¬ 
trol is left in the hands of the farmers, 
who have generally shown themselves fully 
competent to the task. In the Pak Puttun 
district, which lies north of Mooltan, in the 
Baree Doab, an old canal, fifty-five miles long, 
is being re-opened by the district officer.” 
During the administration of Sir Henry Law¬ 
rence, clumps of trees were planted at various 
“ stations ” on the navigable canals, and 
avenues of trees alongside them and the canals 
especially formed for purposes of irrigation. 
In the Punjaub, as well as in other parts of 
India, places of worship are built by the sides 
of rivers, or other bodies of water; these 
Sir Henry surrounded by groves, so as to 
encourage in every direction, where there 
was water to nourish the growth of trees, the 
increase of timber for firewood, and for 
manufacturing and building uses. This was 
a great want in the Punjaub, notwithstanding 
the existence of certain jungle districts in all 
the doabs. Thus the works for irrigation 
have subserved commerce, and promoted the 
domestic comfort of the people. The plans of 
improvement so wisely laid down, under the 
auspices of Sir Henry Lawrence in the first 
few years after the annexation of the Pun¬ 
jaub, were wisely followed up by his brother, 
Sir John, who, with equal zeal, industry, 
perseverance, and sagacity, pursued these 
projects of melioration and improvement, 
laying the foundation for the most prosperous 
fiscal and political condition which any 
country in Asia can exhibit, and with which 


few countries in Europe can compete. In 
Scinde careful regard has also been paid to 
irrigation. The fertility of that region is as 
dependant upon the rising of the Indus as that 
of Egypt is to the rising of the Nile. During the 
seasons of inundation the waters of the Indus 
are distributed over the face of the country 
by a network of canals. About £25,000 
per annum is expended in cleansing these 
canals of the deposit left by the retiring 
waters of the river. The Begaree Canal, in 
Upper Scinde, is one of the most important 
bodies of artificial water in the province. 
This has lately been widened and deep¬ 
ened at a cost of £13,000. Expenses of 
this nature are nearly always sure to produce 
a large return in any well governed province; 
accordingly the outlay on the Begaree has 
resulted in a return of nearly £11,000 per 
annum, and the estimate of future proceeds 
exceeds that sum. The Foolalee Canal, an¬ 
other important artificial watercourse, has 
been lately improved and extended at a cost 
of more than £15,000; and in that case, as 
in those before mentioned, it is expected that 
the outlay will be followed by profitable re¬ 
sults. 

In connexion with irrigation, the tanks 
and anicuts of the Madras presidency de¬ 
serve notice. The monsoon rains are pre¬ 
served in large reservoirs against the neces¬ 
sities of the dry season. The anicuts 
are dams across the beds of rivers, by which 
the waters are retained at a level higher 
than that of the neighbouring country, so 
that, at the suitable time, it may be drained 
over the surface. The anicuts which are 
most notable are those on the Colaroone, 
Godavery, and Kistna. This description of 
dam and reservoir is not of British origin, 
for the anicut of the Colaroone is traceable 
to the second century of our era. About 
£80,000 has been expended on the Colaroone 
in repairing and renewing these works. Ad¬ 
ditional works for conveying irrigation over 
the districts of Tanjore, and portions of 
Trichinopoly and South Arcot, were con¬ 
structed at a cost of about £100,000. The 
average quantity of land watered annually 
from the Colaroone and Cavery prior to 
1836 is given at 630,613 acres. Since the 
improvements, the average (up to 1850) 
was 716,524 acres; being an increase of 
85,911 acres. The annual increase of revenue 
has been about £44,000; and it may be as¬ 
sumed that the agricultural community have 
benefited to the extent of at least £66,000 
per annum from the extension of the area 
of irrigation. It is further calculated that 
at least an equal amount is added to the 
value of the annual produce by the better 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


331 


Chap. XVI.] 

irrigation of tlie lands which the waters 
already reached. 

An expenditure of £47,575 for the con¬ 
struction of the Godavery anicut was sanc¬ 
tioned in 1846. It was then anticipated that 
the total cost, with compound interest at 5 per 
cent, would be recovered in ten years, and 
that thenceforward a clear profit would be 
returned of at least £9000 per annum. The 
work lias, however, proved much more 
costly than was expected. Up to 1852 the 
amount expended was £130,000, and a fur¬ 
ther outlay of £110,000 was expected to be 
required, which, with £24,000 allowed for 
annual repairs during its completion, would 
raise the total expenditure on the works 
(including a system of roads and an im¬ 
portant line of inland navigation) to £264,000. 
The amount expended has, it is stated, been 
already repaid by the increased receipts; and 
the Madras public works commissioners of 
1852 (to one of whom, Colonel Cotton, the 
merit of this important work is in a great 
measure due) estimate that when the works 
shall be in full operation, the total increase 
of revenue will not be less than £300,000 per 
annum, while the gain to the people, by en¬ 
abling them to cultivate the- more valuable 
products, sucb as sugar-cane, rice, &c., in¬ 
stead of the ordinary dry crops, will exceed 
£3,000,000 per annum. 

The anicut across the Kistna River was 
commenced in 1853. The original estimate 
of the cost was £155,000; but it is probable 
that this amount will be to some extent ex¬ 
ceeded. It is intended, by 290 miles of 
irrigation channels distributed on both sides 
of the river, to supply water sufficient for 
280,000 acres of rice cultivation, or 350,000 
of rice, sugar, and possibly cotton, combined. 
The results anticipated are, an increase of 
£60,000 in the revenue of government, 
and a gain of £90,000 per annum to the 
agricultural community. 

In 1854 sanction was given to an expen¬ 
diture of £86,611 for the construction of an 
anicut across the Palar River, in North Arcot, 
and of the works subsidiary to it. The ex¬ 
pected increase of revenue was stated at 
£18,470 per annum, or, deducting 5 per cent 
for repairs, £16,623. 

Very large sums have in the aggregate been 
spent in the construction of new, and still 
more in the repair and restoration of old, 
tanks and wells, both in the Madras presi¬ 
dency and in the other parts of India which 
depend on works of that description for water 
supply. In some hill districts, ravines have 
been dammed up, and a head of water ob¬ 
tained for the irrigation of the adjacent val¬ 
leys or plains. This was the plan of Colonel 


Dixon’s irrigation works in Mhairwarra ; 
and a system of such works had begun to be 
executed in Bundelcund, when the disturb¬ 
ances broke out. 

A disposition has been of late shown to 
form companies for the execution of profit¬ 
able works of irrigation, on certain conditions 
to be granted by the state A In September, 
1857, the directors resolved upon giving a 
guarantee of interest, in the same way as to 
railway companies. 

Roads. —It is sometimes asserted that India 
had good roads under the Moguls, and that 
the government of the East India Company 
has neglected to keep them in repair, and 
has done very little to open up new ones. 
Both these statements are incorrect. The Mo¬ 
hammedan rulers of India made few roads, 
and none of any great magnitude. The 
plains of India are in the dry season so flat 
and smooth, that vehicles can be drawn over 
them, and armies, conveying their artillery, 
can march across them with ease. During the 
rainy season no commercial caravans attempt 
to traverse these inundated levels, and, ex¬ 
cept under rare necessities, no army attempts 
to march. The principal trunk roads in India 
now completed are as follow :—y 


From Calcutta to Peshawur 

MILES. 

1428 j 

COST. 

41,423,000 

„ Calcutta to Bombay . 

1002 

500,000 

„ Madras to Bangalore . 

200 

37,121 

„ Bombay to Agra . . . 

734 

243,670 

„ Rangoon to Prome . . 

200 

160,000 


The first of these roads passes through most 
of the great cities in North-western India to 
Delhi. From Delhi it is continued to Lahore, 
and thence, in its most recent construction, 
to Peshawur. It is generally designated 
“ the Grand Trunk Road.” Generally the 
rivers are bridged in the direction the road 
takes ; but the Ganges and the Soane are still 
crossed by ferries. The land communication 
between Calcutta and Western India is thus 
described in the memorial of improvements 
effected in India within the last thirty years : 
—“ It is carried on by way of the grand 
trunk road to Benares, onward by Mirza- 
pore and Jubbulpore to Nagpore, and thence 
to Bombay. The road beyond Mirzapore, 
under the name of the Great Deccan Road, 
was commenced thirty years ago, but was 
kept up only as a fair-weather road till within 
the last few years, when arrangements were 
made for its being thoroughly raised, metalled, 
and bridged. The distance from Mirzapore 

* Memorial of Improvements in India. 

f Arthur Mills, Esq., M.P. 

] The directors’ memorial represents the distance 
as fifteen hundred miles. 





332 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XVI. 


to Nagpore or Kamptee is nearly four hun¬ 
dred miles. Estimates amounting to £11,659 
were sanctioned by the court of directors, in 
1856, for bridging the portion of road between 
Mirzapore and Jubbulpore, which had been 
already metalled; £25,084 were also sanc¬ 
tioned for raising and metalling the portion 
between Jubbulpore and Kamptee; and mea¬ 
sures were further authorised to bridge this 
portion of the road.” 

The Dacca and Chittagong road is not yet 
completed; and from Arracan into Pegu 
Lieutenant Furlong has undertaken to form 
a road across the mountains by Toungroop. 
A road from Calcutta to Jessore (the line 
of communication with Assam and Birmah) 
has been sanctioned, on an estimate of £41,720. 
A road also has been cut from Martaban to 
Toungoo, vid Sitong. The sea has been 
mainly relied upon for communication between 
Calcutta and Madras; but roads are now 
being made with every prospect of speedily 
opening up a complete land communication. 

Besides the great lines of communication 
above enumerated, a multitude of shorter 
lines have been constructed at the entire cost 
of government, in Bengal, the north-western 
provinces, and the Punjaub, while consider¬ 
able sums have annually been expended in 
the two former divisions of territory from 
local funds. Among the roads.either com¬ 
pleted or under construction at the expense of 
government, is one from a point on the East 
India Railway to Darjeeling (roughly esti¬ 
mated at about £200,000); another from 
Doobee, on the grand trunk road, to Patna 
(cost, £115,000); numerous roads in the 
Saugor and Nerbuddah territories; and a road 
from the plains to Simla and the other hill 
stations, continued through the mountains to 
Chini in Thibet. The district roads were, 
until within the last few years, maintained 
from the profits of the ferries kept up by 
government; but there are now also appro¬ 
priated to this purpose, in Bengal, the surplus 
tolls on the Nuddea rivers and the Calcutta 
canals, amounting altogether to £50,000, and 
the surplus proceeds of various local funds 
established for other purposes. In the north¬ 
western provinces, one per cent, on the land 
revenue is contributed in equal portions by 
the government and by the landowners, for 
the purpose of district roads, the landowners 
being thus freed from the obligation, which 
previously lay on them, of keeping in repair 
the public roads which passed through their 
lands. In these provinces, as in Bengal, the 
ferry funds are appropriated to district roads, 
and they amount to about £20,000.* 

* Memorandum of Improvements in the Administra¬ 
tion of India. 


Independent of the canal communications 
in the Madras presidency, which are im¬ 
portant, great efforts have been made within 
the last ten years to open up good roads. 
Besides the trunk line to Bangalore, there 
has been also constructed the southern road 
to Trichinopoly, 205 miles in length; the 
northern road to the Bengal frontier, with a 
branch to Cuddapah, 758 miles; and the 
Sumpajee Ghaut road, from the western 
frontier of Mysore to Matgalore, 105 miles. 

According to statistical reports made by 
the directors, the made roads in the Bombay 
presidency, twenty-five years ago, were almost 
entirely limited to the presidency town and 
its immediate neighbourhood ; the road from 
Bombay (or rather Panwell, on the other side 
of the harbour) to Poonah being the only road 
to a distant place on which any considerable 
expenditure had taken place. This road has 
since been greatly improved, and supplied 
with bridges. The Bhore Ghaut, or pass, on 
this road, formerly accessible only to bullocks, 
and coolies, or porters, had in 1830, at an ex¬ 
pense of about £13,000, been made easy for 
carriages. The Thull Ghaut, on the Bom¬ 
bay and Agra road, has since been similarly 
improved; and roads over the Khoonda 
Ghaut, the Tulkut Ghaut, and the Koom- 
tudee Ghaut, to the southward, have since 
been put under construction, to facilitate the 
communications between the coast and the 
interior of the country. The portion of the 
Agra and Bombay road, within the jurisdic¬ 
tion of the Bombay government, is two hun¬ 
dred and seventy miles in length. The expen¬ 
diture on it had amounted, in 1848, to £75,390; 
and since that time a considerable outlay has 
taken place, especially on the improvement 
of the Thull Ghaut and the road below it. 
A system of roads for Scinde, at an estimated 
cost of from £20,000 to £30,000, received 
the sanction of the home authorities in 1854, 
and is in progress. In the Punjaub, where 
the greatest improvements in every respect 
have been brought to pass, roads have re¬ 
ceived the constant attention of the com¬ 
missioners. Immediately upon the accession 
of the territory, the commissioners began the 
work, and have prosecuted it with the utmost 
zeal. The grand trunk from Lahore to 
Peshawur, a distance of two hundred and 
seventy-five miles, forms a part of the grand 
Indian trunk from Calcutta to Peshawur. 
This road is completely metalled and bridged 
throughout, from its entrance to the Punjaub 
to Peshawur, at a cost of £154,848. Roads 
from Jullundur to Lahore, and from Lahore 
to Mooltan, have been also undertaken. 

The roads of the Punjaub were classified 
by Sir Henry Lawrence under the heads of 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


333 


(Jhap. XVI.] 

military and commercial, and the latter as for 
external and for internal commerce. In such 
a classification the primary object of the 
road was kept in view, as of course military 
roads could be used for commercial purposes. 
Thus the grand trunk road from Lahore to 
Peshawur is designated under the military 
class, because, the army being massed along 
that line, its primary object was for military 
convenience; it is, however, an important 
highway of commerce. In reference to roads 
most important in a military point of view, 
the following occurs in one of the recent 
Punjaub blue-books :—“ The construction of 
the grand trunk road from the Beas to 
Lahore, and the earthen and masonry via¬ 
ducts crossing the drainage courses of the 
Baree Doab, have been completed. A straight 
line of road has been carried from Umritsir 
to the new cantonment of Sealkote, which is 
further connected with the Peshawur road 
by a branch road to Wuzeerabad. The 
military and commercial roads from Lahore 
to Mooltan, and from Lahore to Ferozepore, 
have been opened. An important military 
line, passing through a very mountainous and 
rugged track, from Attock to Kalabagh, via 
Rawul Pindee, has also been opened, to con¬ 
nect the frontier force stations with the 
northern cantonments of the regular army. 
The difficult road leading through the Kohat 
passes into the Peshawur valley has also 
been improved.” 

Lines of road for the external commerce 
of the Punjaub were planned and put in pro¬ 
gress by Sir Henry, and in some cases com¬ 
pleted by Sir John, who, as Mr. John Law¬ 
rence, assisted his brother in the commission 
of the “ country of the five rivers.” Two great 
lines were planned by Sir Henry—one to con¬ 
nect Dera Ismail Khan with Lahore, and 
another to start from the same point, and to 
run across the Scinde Saugor Doab, and 
thence across the Baree Doab to Ullohur, to 
meet the Delhi road, the internal lines carrying 
the traffic down to Mooltan. The importance 
of these lines will be obvious, from a consi¬ 
deration of the commercial position of the 
Punjaub, which is a thoroughfare through 
which the commerce of Central Asia passes 
to the plains of India, and to Scinde and 
Bombay. The caravans which travel from 
Ghuznee to Delhi (which were once the rival 
and the sister capitals of the Mohammedan 
empire) were forced to follow a very diffi¬ 
cult as well as circuitous route. Emerging 
near Dera Ismail Khan from the Submanee 
passes, they winded their weary way to Mool¬ 
tan, through the wastes of the Scinde Saugor 
Doab, and then turned northward to Lahore, 
thence proceeding to Ferozepore or Loodiana, 


or else they traversed Bhawulpore and other 
independent territories from Mooltan, paying 
heavy transit duties. The plans of Sir Henry 
Lawrence and his officers met these difficul¬ 
ties, and opened up feasible ways for the 
“ external commerce ” of the country. The 
“internal communications” of the territory 
whose affairs they so judiciously administered, 
were also provided for by those two gifted 
brothers. Their plans comprehended the 
connection of Mooltan with Jhelum by a line 
along the bank of the river of that name and 
V uzeerabad, and Sealkote by a line along 
the banks of the Chenab, passing by Jhung. 
These were the first improvements, and they 
were followed well up by others. 

In territory such as the Punjaub, making 
roads is not the only matter to be considered 
when planning lines of communication. 
Wells and other accommodation for travel¬ 
lers have been provided along these com¬ 
mercial lines. Without them, the roads 
would be useless. There are scarcely any 
important lines which do not, during part of 
their course, traverse arid and desolate tracts. 
Literally a fleet of ferry-boats were built, 
to facilitate the passage of the rivers, and, 
with a prompt and ready forethought, mooring 
chains and anchors were provided to prevent 
accidents. These ferry-boats bridged the rivers 
in winter by the assistance of these chains and 
anchors, while in the summer they bore pas¬ 
sengers across for a small toll. Iron pontoon 
bridges were recommended by the commis¬ 
sioners as applicable, not only to the Punjaub, 
but to India generally; but the home govern¬ 
ment, upon consideration, did not approve of 
the extensive adoption of these media of pas¬ 
sage. 

It would be unjust in a popular history 
which comprehends the men and the mea¬ 
sures of our times, not to notice the names of 
the persons to whose talents the detail of the 
stupendous undertakings in the Punjaub are 
to be attributed, and in some cases the ori¬ 
ginal suggestions. The commissioners have 
themselves made the following handsome ac¬ 
knowledgment of the services of the officers 
by whose assistance and personal superin¬ 
tendence so many important works were 
brought to a happy termination :—“ For the 
energetic and able manner in which these 
important works have been executed, as well 
as for the zealous co-operation in all engineer¬ 
ing and military questions, the board are 
indebted to Lieutenant-colonel Napier, who 
has spared neither time, health, nor conve¬ 
nience, in the duties entrusted to him. For 
these valuable services the board cannot too 
warmly express their thanks. Colonel Napier 
has brought to the favourable notice of the 



334 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XVI. 


board the zealous assistance he has derived 
from his assistants generally, and especially 
the valuable services of Lieutenant Taylor, in 
charge of the Lahore and Peshawur road ; 
Lieutenant Dyas, in charge of the great 
canal; Lieutenant Anderson, of the Madras 
engineers, who has examined the Mooltan 
canals; Major Longden, her majesty’s 10th 
regiment, in charge of the Huslee Canal; the 
late Lieutenant Paton and Lieutenant Crofton, 
both of- the engineers, and employed on the 
new canal; and Lieutenant Oliphant, of the 
engineers, in charge of a division of the 
Peshawur road; and Lieutenant Lamb, 18th 
native infantry.” 

Looking at the general operations through¬ 
out India during the last ten years, in the 
completion of good roads for caravans and 
wheeled carriages, the results are truly won¬ 
derful ; and the programme of operations of a 
similar nature, intended for immediate com¬ 
mencement, had not the mutiny deranged for 
a time the plans of the directors, was such 
as deserved the gratitude of India and of 
England. 

Railways. —This is a subject to which 
the attention of the English public is espe¬ 
cially directed. It is impossible to place the 
progress of railways before our readers in a 
more condensed form than in the report of 
the directors themselves. It is, however, to 
be observed, that the railways of India are 
constructed by private capital; the land, and 
a guarantee for interest, are given by the 
company. Four thousand one hundred and 
fifty-eight miles of railway have been sanc¬ 
tioned, and measures are being taken for 
their construction by various companies, 
viz.:— 

By the East Indian Railway Company—from 
Calcutta to Delhi, with branches from Burd- 
wan to Raneegunge, and from Mirzapore to 
Jubbulpore, 1400 miles. 

By the Eastern Bengal Railway Company 
—from Calcutta to the Ganges at Koostree, 
near Pubnah (130 miles), being the first 
section of a line to Dacca, with a branch to 
Jessore; which, when completed, will form 
the basis of a system of railways for Eastern 
Bengal. 

By the Madras Company—from Madras to 
the western coast at Beypore, 430 miles ; and 
from Madras, vid Cuddapah and Bellary, to 
meet a line from Bombay at or near the river 
Kistna, 310 miles. 

By the Great Indian Peninsula Company— 
from Bombay to Callian, thirty-three miles, 
with extensions, north-east to Jubbulpore, to 
meet the line from Mirzapore, with a branch 
to Oomrawuttee and Nagpore, 818 miles, 


and south-east, vid Poonah and Sholapore— 
to the Kistna River, to meet the line from 
Madras, 357 miles. 

By the Scinde and Punjaub Company—from 
Kurrachee to a point in the Indus, at or near 
to Kotree, 120 miles; and from Mooltan to 
Lahore and Umritsir, in the Punjaub, 230 
miles. 

By the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India 
Company—from Bombay to Surat, Baroda, 
and Ahmedabad, 330 miles. 

The estimated outlay required to complete 
the several lines sanctioned is £34,231,000; 
and the total amount of capital at present issued 
by the sanction of the East India Company is 
£22,814,000. In addition to this assistance 
by way of guarantee, the land for the rail¬ 
ways (including compensation for all buildings 
thereon), and for their termini, has been 
given by government. The value of this 
may be estimated at more than £1,000,000 
for the above extent of line. The lines in 
course of construction have been chosen for 
commercial quite as much as for military and 
political objects. In every case the existing 
channels of trade have been followed. The 
chief cotton-producing districts are provided 
with railway accommodation; and in some 
instances,-—such as the railway which con¬ 
nects the great cotton-field of Berar with 
Bombay, and the railway through Surat and 
Gujerat,—the principal object is to develop 
the agricultural resources of those districts, 
and to bring their produce into communica¬ 
tion with the sea. At present only a small 
section is open in each presidency, making 
about 400 miles in all; but 3600 more are 
being constructed almost simultaneously. 
The works for the trunk lines above de¬ 
scribed have been made suitable for locomo¬ 
tive engines, and are of a solid and per¬ 
manent character, so that an uninterrupted 
communication will be maintained throughout 
the year. The mileage cost of the lines 
which have been completed has been :—East 
Indian —Calcutta to Raneegunge, 121 miles 
(including double line to Burdwan, and ter¬ 
minal stations), about £12,000 per mile. 
Madras —Madras to Arcot, sixty-five miles, 
about £5500 per mile. The data in respect 
to the lines now open in the Bombay presi¬ 
dency, constructed by the Great Indian 
Peninsular Railway Company, are not suffi¬ 
ciently complete to enable the actual mileage 
cost to be ascertained. 

It is, perhaps, premature to judge of the 
success of Indian railways as commercial 
undertakings; but the line from Calcutta to 
Raneegunge is already realising a profit of 
nearly seven per cent., being two per cent, 
beyond the guaranteed rate of interest. 



Ohap. XVI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


335 


In addition to the lines specified above, the 
court have sanctioned the construction of one 
by the Calcutta and South Eastern Railway 
Company, from Calcutta to the Mutlah River, 
upon the same terms as to the provision of 
land, but without any guarantee of interest. 

Electric Telegraphs. —Even more im¬ 
portant as a means of communication than 
railways, is the electric telegraph ; the use of 
which, at the commencement of the late dis¬ 
turbances, may, be said with scarcely any 
exaggeration to have saved our empire. 
Having already, in a wonderfully short space 
of time, connected the seats of the different 
governments by lines of telegraph upwards of 
three thousand miles in length, the govern¬ 
ment of India is now engaged in establishing 
additional lines of about the same extent, 
by which the most important places on the 
line of route will be brought into communi¬ 
cation with each other. The lines estab¬ 
lished, and in course of construction, are :— 

1st. From Calcutta, via Benares, Cawn- 
pore, Agra, Meerut, Delhi, Umritsir, and 
Lahore, to Peshawur; with a branch to 
Lucknow. 

2nd. From Bombay to Agra, vid Indore 
and Gwalior. 

3rd. From Bombay to Madras, vid Sattara, 
Bellary, and Bangalore. 

4th. From Bombay, along the coast, by 
Vingorla and Mangalore, to Cannanore. 

5th. From Bangalore to Ootacamund and 
Mahableshwar. 

6th. From Benares, through the centre of 
the peninsula, by Mirzapore, Jubbulpore, 
Nagpore, and Hyderabad, to Bellary. 

7th. From Bombay, by Surat and Baroda, 
to Kurrachee. 

8th. From Kurrachee, by Hyderabad 
(Scinde) and Mooltan, to Lahore. 

9th. From Calcutta, by Dacca, Akyab, and 
Prome, to Pegu and Rangoon. 

10th. From Calcutta to Madras, by the 
coast; and— 

11th. From Madras, along the coast, by 
Pondicherry, Tranquebar, and Ramnad, to 
Ceylon. 

The lines already established have cost, 
upon an average/ about £50 per mile. Be¬ 
sides their inappreciable value to the govern¬ 
ment for political and military purposes, they 
are freely used by the mercantile community. 
Though the charges are very moderate, the 
revenue, in the first year of working the 
lines, exceeded the expenses, and since then 
the receipts have been steadily increasing. 

During the sepoy rebellion, the utility of 
the electric telegraph was tested; its exist¬ 
ence at that period was of more importance 


than the presence in India of 10,000 addi¬ 
tional soldiers. 

Hospitals and Dispensaries. —The go¬ 
vernment has done much to bring the instru¬ 
mentalities of medical relief within reach of 
the people everywhere. The regulations in 
practice in reference to this provide an 
hospital or dispensary in every town where 
the inhabitants will bear a certain proportion 
of the expense. 

Libraries. —The establishment of public 
libraries in the provincial towns will appear 
to most Europeans as an effort to benefit the 
people in a manner they are not prepared 
to appreciate. This plan- of extending civi¬ 
lization in India has been going forward for 
a considerable time, but, notwithstanding the 
sanguine opinions and more sanguine expec¬ 
tations of many of the friends of India, no 
great results have been procured. 

In the return made to an order of the 
Honourable the House of Commons, dated 
the 7th of August, 1857, the budgets of pub¬ 
lic works in India for the years 1853-4, 
1854-5, 1855-6, have been presented; also 
an estimate for 1856-7. This return em¬ 
braces churches, public offices, jails, and mis¬ 
cellaneous buildings and works; embank¬ 
ments, roads and bridges, lighthouses, dock¬ 
yards and harbours, inland navigation, irri¬ 
gation works, railroads, charges for govern¬ 
ment officers, and for land supplied to the 
private companies working under government 
guarantee; electric telegraph, military, and 
certain unclassified works. The returns com-' 
prise the expenditure for Bengal, Madras, Bom¬ 
bay, the north-western provinces, the Pun- 
jaub, and the Pegu and Straits settlements. 

For the year 1856-7, the amounts authorised 
in statement No. 1, for public works in the de¬ 
partments of military, public, judicial, ecclesi¬ 
astical, educational, revenue (general), revenue 
(irrigation), marine, political, were for Ben¬ 
gal—rupees—7.09.492; Madras, 21.58.233 ; 
Bombay, 6.70.047; the north-west provinces, 
6.30.892; the Punjaub, 7.32.644; the Straits 
settlements, 40.000; Pegu, 1.61.619; Tenes- 
serim and Martaban provinces, 7.600; Hyder¬ 
abad, 4.938: making a total expenditure of 
51.18.665. This outlay was sanctioned by 
the government of India. Under statement 
No. 1 there is a budget of expenditure re¬ 
commended to the court of directors exclusive 
of the foregoing, amounting to 17.54.849. 

Statement No. 2, gives the expenditure-on 
all works previously sanctioned, and on new 
sanctions by local governments, the amount 
of which is 1.64.34.334. Under statement 




336 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XVI. 


No. 2 for repairs the total is 52.08.257. 
The total amount authorised for the year 
1856-7 was 2.20.15.420. Under orders of 
the 17th of October, 1856, all civil, military, 
and marine buildings intended exclusively for 
the use of the government and its establish¬ 
ments, and worts not coming within the 
term works of public improvement, can be 
proceeded with without other limitation than 
that of the sanctioned estimates; but the ex¬ 
penditure on works of public improvement— 
such as works of irrigation, canals, roads, 
bridges, and harbours—is restricted to one 
crore of rupees, the sum allotted by the ho¬ 
nourable the court of directors, for such works 
during the official year 1856-7. This sum 
has been divided among the several local 
governments and administrations in the fol¬ 
lowing proportions :—To Bengal, twelve lacs; 
Madras, twenty-two lacs; Bombay and Scinde, 
fourteen lacs; the north-western provinces, 
fifteen lacs; the Punjaub, twenty-one lacs; 
Oude, five lacs; Pegu, four and a half lacs; 
Tenesserim and Martaban provinces, half a lac; 
Hyderabad, three lacs; Nagpore, two and a 
quarter lacs; Straits settlements three quarters 
of a lac. By this report, made from the India- 
house at the close of 1857, the most recent 
expenditure on public works is presented. 

Under the head of public works certain ex¬ 
penditure is classed, which would seem more 
properly to be represented as bounty or en¬ 
couragement to agriculture and commerce. 
Thus the growth of cotton has received the 
patronage of the company. In 1840 ten ex¬ 
perienced cotton-planters from the United 
States were engaged to conduct certain expe¬ 
riments in the cultivation of the finer descrip¬ 
tion of cotton. The climate proved unsuitable 
where most of the trials were made, but in 
parts of South-western India the experiments 
were successful, and a large cultivation of 
American cotton is now being conducted 
there. These districts are near the coast, and 
have roads. Measures are being taken to 
facilitate the transport of cotton from the 
places where its culture is most successfully 
carried on. The servants of the East India 
Company, especially their medical servants, 
have of late years given much attention to 
climatology, and more especially in its rela¬ 
tion to vegetable productions, from which the 
cotton cultivation has derived much benefit. 
The East India Company, in 1849, offered a 
reward of 5000 rupees for an improved cot¬ 
ton-cleaning machine, and great efforts in the 
cleaning department have been made—an es¬ 
sential matter to the improvement of Indian 
cotton. The East India Company have also ex¬ 
pended money upon the culture of such fibrous 
plants as might be made sources of profitable 


commerce. The results of the experiments 
made in this department have surprised the 
company, and all interested in the enterprise. 

In previous chapters notice was taken of 
the encouragement given by the government 
to the cultivation of tea; it is therefore un¬ 
necessary in this place -to express more upon 
the subject, than that considerable hill tracts, 

' suitable to its culture, have been set apart by 
the company in favour of the cultivators. 
The government has also thought it expe¬ 
dient to patronise the working of iron ore. 
This subject seems first to have seriously 
engaged the attention of the court of direc¬ 
tors so recently as 1850; but in 1854 ex¬ 
tensive inquiries and investigations were 
instituted, which issued in important results. 
In 1855 a report was made to the public- 
works department by Lieutenant-colonel 
Godwin, chief engineer of the lower pro¬ 
vinces of Bengal, which was highly encou¬ 
raging as to the prospects of iron mines 
being worked, and iron extensively manu¬ 
factured, in India. In 1856 experiments 
were made, under the company’s auspices, in 
the manufacture of superior iron with some 
success. 

Of course a considerable outlay in con¬ 
nection with public works will, by the neces¬ 
sities of the country, be expended on barracks 
and jails. The latter appear to be admirably 
managed and conducted, especially in the 
Punjaub. The barrack department is pro¬ 
bably worse conducted than any other. 
The European soldiers are frequently quar¬ 
tered in unhealthy situations, and the barrack 
accommodation afforded to them is inade¬ 
quate; the late Sir Charles Napier, a friend 
of the soldier, repeatedly expressed his dis¬ 
approbation, and even indignation, at this 
circumstance. The vast impulse which has 
been given to public works in India may 
be judged by the facts, that one hundred 
thousand tons of railway materials, and a 
million of sleepers, were landed at Bombay 
alone in 1856-7. In March and April, 1857, 
twenty thousand tons of castings for the 
Vedar Water-works were landed in that port. 
During the same time the imports of iron 
were represented by the Bombay papers to 
be seven thousand tons. In 1856 the great 
Indian Peninsula Railway imported thirteen 
thousand tons of iron. The QueenVictoria 
steamer was announced by a publication of 
Bombay, in April, 1857, as arriving with 
eighty tons of locomotives for the great Indian 
Peninsula Railway, and the Vedar Water¬ 
works. 

The improvement and enlargement of docks 
and harbours claim some especial notice. 
Taken in connection with the recent efforts 





IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


337 


Cuaf XVI.] 

for cultivating the lands lying seaward, more | 
immediately those set apart for cotton culture, • 
and the lines of road opened up from the 
great seaports into the interior, this subject 
assumes much importance. The develop¬ 
ment of internal communications, and exter¬ 
nal outlets, have in all civilized lands kept 
pace. This is not only true of countries pos¬ 
sessing a good seaboard, but of such as, like 
the Punjaub, are dependant upon a river 
navigation through other countries for com¬ 
munication with the sea: the remark is even 
applicable to nations that are completely in¬ 
land, for their roads and river means of 
internal intercourse will always converge 
upon those points which are thorough¬ 
fares into neighbouring states. Bombay, 
notwithstanding its vastly increasing com¬ 
merce and its important relative position, has 
been left deficient in docks or any similar 
provision. The number of square-rigged 
vessels that entered the Bombay port during 
the year 1855, was 311, besides 218 steamers, 
with an aggregate tonnage of 279,805. The 
trade of the port for 1851-5, is stated to 
have been 735,562|- tons, and to have 
increased in the following year to 912,140^- 
tons. For this large commerce no adequate 
accommodation has yet been provided. The 
officiating commissioner of customs for salt and 
opium gave the following evidence upon the 
cost of loading and unloading vessels in the 
port of Bombay:—“ On making inquiries from 
the several merchants, I still experienced 
great difficulty in procuring the required in¬ 
formation, as there is no uniform system or 
practice adopted by them. One firm, per- 
haps, contracts for boat hire alone; another 
contracts for the goods being discharged from 
the ship, and landed on the wharf; while an¬ 
other, perhaps, contracts for the removal of 
the goods from a ship to the depositing of 
them in the merchant’s warehouses, includ¬ 
ing the cost of guarding them, &c. Petty 
pilferage and damage from wet during the 
monsoon, are among the casualties to which 
goods thus treated are said to be exposed. 
The petty pilferage is stated to have been 
proved, a few years since, to amount to 
L,600,000 rupees.” 

The following testimony to the difficulties 
of transacting the enormously increasing 
business of the port, and the necessities for 
more suitable accommodation for shipping, was 
borne by one well competent to pronounce an 
opinion :—“ The average expense of bringing 
goods from a ship’s side and landing on the 
wharf, is one or two rupees per ton, and for i 


I heavy machinery two rupees per ton ; hut the 
' latter is now a losing rate, because the quantity 
to be landed exceeds the capabilities of the 
boats, and of room for their discharge, and boat- 
hire has risen 75 per cent, within the last six 
months. The collector of customs has found 
it necessary to threaten a withdrawal of their 
licenses from all boats above sixteen tons, on 
account of the large space they occupy along¬ 
side the wharf.”* 

The attention of the government has been 
directed to this state of things, and on the 17th 
of March, 1855, a committee was appointed 
to determine a locality for the docks. Out of 
this investigation proposals arose for two 
schemes, one of which has the sanction of 
government; the other is deemed by the com¬ 
mercial community the more feasible, although 
neither is generally considered at all ade¬ 
quate. The whole community of Bombay 
is alive to the necessity; and the government 
was giving its most earnest attention to the 
subject, when the breaking out of the mutiny 
stopped short the progress of improvements 
in so many respects. In the meantime, im¬ 
portant publications are guiding and forming 
public opinion.f 

On a former page a description was given 
of the port of Ivurrachee, and its importance 
in relation to all North-western and Western 
India, and in its relation to the overland 
route. In connection with the schemes for 
the Scinde and Punjaub Railway, and the im¬ 
provement of the navigation of the Indus, 
this port is receiving such improvements as 
will develop all the advantages of its position. 
Although Calcutta possesses so many cir¬ 
cumstances in its favour, especially in connec¬ 
tion with the seat of government, even there 
it has been deemed requisite to improve the 
facilities afforded to commerce in the condi¬ 
tion of the port. At Madras the unfavour¬ 
able nature of the locality seems to bid defi¬ 
ance to any very decided improvement; but 
the enterprise which marks the proceedings 
of the board of works, inspires hope that 
something will be done to abate the dangers 
to which shipping, and passengers in landing, 
are now exposed. When harbours, docks, 
and wharves have partaken of the attention 
and outlay of the government, as roads, 
rivers, and irrigation have done, the prosperity 
of India will be much promoted. 

* "Bombay Quarterly Review. 

f Papers relating to a Project for Wei and Pry 
Locks in the Harbour of Bombay, printed for Govern¬ 
ment at the Bombay Education Society’s Press, 1856; 
On Pocks and Wharves for Bombay; Proceedings of 
i the Bombay Mechanics' Institution, session 1857. 


VOL. I, 


X X 



338 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XVI [ 


CHAPTER XVII. 

TIIE GOVERNMENT OF THE BRITISH INDIAN EMPIRE ( Continued .). 


THE MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 

The army by which the territory of British 
India is garrisoned and defended, and by 
which wars have been conducted against 
other powers, has consisted of three different 
elements—namely, queen’s troops, company’s 
troops, and contingents. The queen’s troops 
are conveyed to India at the expense of the 
company, and when there are allowed extra 
pay at its cost. Their number is dependant 
upon circumstances, but has generally varied 
from eighteen to twenty-two thousand men. 
It has been shown in the sketch afforded of 
the different acts of the imperial parliament 
affecting the constitution of the Indian go¬ 
vernment, that the commander-in-chief of the 
queen’s forces in India is ex officio comman¬ 
der-in-chief of the company’s forces, and that 
each presidential commander-in-chief of the 
queen’s forces is also commander-in-chief of 
the company’s forces within that presidency. 
The officers of the company’s army are ap¬ 
pointed by the directors. The contingents 
are native troops, subjects of native princes, and 
placed at the command of the company under 
certain treaties. In the company’s own army 
there are two distinct classes of troops—Euro¬ 
pean and native. The total number of the 
East India Company's native forces of all 
arms, including commissioned and non-com¬ 
missioned native officers and men, up to the 
latest period received before the recent re¬ 
volt, was as follows :—■ 

Engineers. —Native commissioned and non¬ 


commissioned, rank and file. 3,158 

Artillery.* —Horse. 1,073 

„ Foot. 7,676 

Cavalry. +—Regular and irregular. 26,129 

Infantry. J—Regular and irregular .... 189,008 
Veterans. —Native officers and men .... 3,374 

Native Medical Establishment . 858 

Total. 231,276 


Giving a total number of 269 native regi¬ 
ments of all arms, and of 231,276 native offi¬ 
cers and men. A large portion of this force, 
comprising about one-half of the whole, has, 
by mutiny and disarmament, ceased to exist, 
leaving a total number of native forces of all 
arms practically available of about 120,000 
men. 

* Tlie torse artillery consists of five brigades, and the 
foot of eighteen battalions. 

f The cavalry is divided into fifty regiments. 

1 The infantry comprises a hundred and ninety-six i 
regiments 


The total number of the East India Com¬ 
pany’s European forces now in India (not 
deducting losses arising out of the recent 
revolt, of which no complete authentic return 
has been received) is as follows, and presents 
a total of 22,047 European officers and men : 


Engineers. —European officers and men . . 434 

Artillery. —Horse and foot, European officers 
and men (of which there are twelve batta¬ 
lions of European foot) . 6,585 

Cavalry. —European officers and men .... 509 

Infantry. — ,, ,, .... 13,032 

Veterans. — „ „ .... 436 

Medical Establishment. —Europeans, includ¬ 
ing European warrant officers. 1,051 

Total. 22,047 


The total number of queen’s troops now 
(April, 1858) in India amounts to about 
70,000 men. 

The contingent troops of the native states 
commanded by British officers, and bound 
under treaties to serve the British govern¬ 
ment, amounted, before the mutiny of 1857, 


to about 32,000,* viz.:— 

Hyderabad (the Nizam’s) auxiliary force . . 8,094 

* Gwalior (Scindiah’s contingent). 8,401 

* Kotah contingent. 1,148 

Mysore horse (officered by natives).4,000 

Gujerat (Guicowar’s) contingent. 3,756 

* Bhopal contingent .. 829 

* Malwa united contingent. 1,617 

Malwa Bheel corps. 648 

* Joudpore legion. 1,246 

Meywar Bheel corps. 1,054 

Colapore local horse. 907 

Sawunt Waree local corps. 611 

Total.32,311 


Holkar is bound by treaty to furnish a 
contingent of a thousand horse, but these 
troops are not commanded by British officers. 

Besides these regular contingents, bodies 
of troops have been sent in aid of the com¬ 
pany’s forces by native princes. Before 
Holkar was under any treaty his armies 
were auxiliaries. The same was the case 
with the kings of Oude; and now Jhung 
Bahadoor, the Rajah of Nepaul, is aiding the 
company in a form and to an extent not 
provided for by treaty. 

The modes of admission to the company’s 
military service are by direct appointment, 
and through the company’s military seminaiy 
at Addiscombe, in the county of Surrey. The 
direct appointments are chiefly to the cavalry, 

* The contingents which have mutinied are marked 
with an asterisk. 

























Chap. XVII.] 


IX INDIA AND THE EAST 


S39 


but such are also made to the infantry. The 
cadets are passed through the cadet-office of 
the India-house, a department under the able 
direction of John Hollyer, Esq., and enter 
the seminary, where they study for two years, 
keeping four terms. The age of admission is 
from fourteen to eighteen, but gentlemen may 
be candidates for direct appointments up to 
the age of twenty-two. The cadets at Ad- 
(liscombe pay the company £100 a year each 
for the expenses of their education and main¬ 
tenance. The additional expenses of each 
student are hardly met by an addition of 
£50 per year. The course of study is admir¬ 
able. The professors are men of the highest 
attainments, and “apt to teach.” The exa¬ 
minations are conducted with impartiality, and 
the degree of attainment developed by them 
is truly astonishing. The author of this His¬ 
tory has attended examinations, and inspected, 
with surprise and pleasure, the military draw¬ 
ings and modellings of fortifications exhi¬ 
bited, which displayed great ability and evi¬ 
dence of study on the part of the pupils. 
Generally, on these occasions, the chairman 
of the court of directors presides, and of late 
years the Archbishop of Canterbury has fre¬ 
quently addressed the students. Rewards are 
liberally bestowed. The Pollock medal and 
sword are prizes eagerly contended for; and 
the competition is keen, victory or defeat 
being almost always generously and nobly 
borne. The friends and relatives of the 
pupils, and a large concourse of privileged 
spectators, chiefly consisting of superior 
officers, or civil servants of the company, 
are present on these occasions. The presence 
of men of genius, of military or legislative 
renown, whose names are prominent in the 
history of our country, is a great stimulus to 
the efforts of the students, although it not 
unfrequently represses the energy of the more 
shy and nervous, who may, nevertheless, be 
among the most highly gifted. It is an 
affecting sight to witness a mere youth, clad 
in the simple uniform of the company’s 
cadets, retiring from the place of exami¬ 
nation, bearing swords, medals, and other 
badges of honour, amidst the generous cheers 
of his unsuccessful competitors, and the plau¬ 
dits of an auditory comprising the most 
famous men of the day. The author has 
seen more than one fine youth, who had gone 
through his examinations with unflinching 
self-possession in the face of the crowd of 
honoured or titled persons before him, com¬ 
pletely subdued by his emotions in the mo¬ 
ment of success. Whatever objections may 
be made to these examinations in some re¬ 
spects, the advantages far more than compen¬ 
sate them, and the scenes presented on such 


occasions are likely to live for ever in the 
memories of those young soldiers, and to 
prove, far off from their country, a stimulus to 
exertion and courage on the field of their 
future trials and glory. Distinguished officers 
of the company, whose names are known 
throughout all the nations of civilized man, and 
throughout every uncivilized nook of Southern 
and Central Asia, have declared to the author 
that they attributed to these occasions much 
of the stimulus which enkindled the passion 
for glory within them, and that these scenes 
remained vividly impressed upon their hearts 
amidst the labours, perils, and grave respon¬ 
sibilities of Indian warfare and Asiatic life 
The most proficient students are nominated 
to the department of engineers, and, after 
having left Addiscombe, proceed to Chatham 
for a further course of study of one year, 
after which they proceed to India as officers 
of engineers. While at Chatham, however, 
they draw pay from the company. The second 
class of proficients are nominated to the 
artillery, and proceed, on leaving Addis¬ 
combe, direct to India. Such as do not suc¬ 
ceed in attaining a position in either of the 
first two classes, or as do not choose the engi¬ 
neer or artillery services, are designated to 
the infantry. The number of students in 
May, 1858, was a hundred and fifty. 

The general character of the officers of the 
East India Company’s army has equalled, 
if it has not surpassed, that of the officers of 
any other. This will especially hold good of 
those who have been educated at Addiscombe. 

The engineers have been probably the 
most intelligent body of officers the world 
has ever seen. They all know that upon 
real service depends promotion, honour, and 
emolument, and that these advantages are 
sure to follow good service. A large number 
of this class of officers are appointed ulti¬ 
mately to the civil service, where, as civil 
administrators and civil engineers, they can 
be of even more use—in time of peace, at all 
events—than in the military department. 
Accustomed at Addiscombe and Chatham to 
habits of study, and to regard military life 
from an intellectual and professional point of 
view, rather than from one merely social, 
they go forth to their duties earnest and 
thoughtful as well as brave soldiers, and 
hence much of the distinction to which they 
have attained both as soldiers and men of 
science, and the reputation they have won 
for their country and for the particular 
army in which they serve. It is impossible 
for any one to observe the class of young men 
who gain at Addiscombe the appointments to 
the engineer service, and not predicate of 
them future eminence, not only in the per- 



340 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XVII. 


sonal distinctions to be won, but the national 
services to be rendered. 

The artillery of the East India Company 
has also attained a high character for effi¬ 
ciency in the field. Many of its officers have 
studied for the engineer department, but, from 
health failing them, domestic troubles, slip of 
memory under examination, some concession 
to the temptations so potent with the young, 
or change of purpose, they have entered the 
artillery service instead. During the various 
wars in the East, when the officers of the 
royal artillery have served with them, they 
have borne a high testimony to the superior 
skill and soldier-like deportment and spirit of 
the company’s artillery officers. The follow¬ 
ing extract from a letter by Sir Charles Napier 
to an officer of the Bengal artillery, who 
wrote to him from Kumaon, on the borders 
of Nepaul, offering certain suggestions, will 
show the opinion which that celebrated officer 
entertained of the Indian artillery service :— 

Simla, November 'oth, 1846. 

I approve mucli your report on the state of defences in 
Kumaon; and though Jhung Bahadoor has told my wife 
in London that he loves me more than any man living, 
still, as lovers sometimes quarrel, I should like to he pre¬ 
pared for him, and your suggestions shall be pressed on 
the attention of government. 

What you say about the deficiency and frequent change 
of officers with the reserve companies of artillery is hut 
too true. I did intend, had I been able, to reform the 
whole system; but I am of no use—no more power 
have I than a lance-corporal. I believe, however, I have 
succeeded in moving the head-quarters of your regiment 
into these provinces, either to Delhi or Meerut. 

I think very highly of your officers generally, but espe¬ 
cially of the young officers. When I have found fault, I 
have invariably traced it to the “ system,” and I have 
vainly represented this ; hut pray understand that in con¬ 
demning the system of the Bengal army 1 always say this 
—that the artillery I believe to be, at this moment, the 
first in the world. 

Notwithstanding the superior education and 
attainments of the company’s officers, defects 
have crept into, the military system of the 
company which need correction, and which 
no doubt conduced to the unfortunate sepoy 
revolt of 1857. Some of those evils depend 
upon the general management of the army ; 
some upon the infantry regimental system; 
others upon the character of the men enlisted 
in the native armies: and all these causes 
combined operate unfavourably on the effi¬ 
ciency of the whole service. As to the gene¬ 
ral management of the army, the chief faults 
appear to be the great draft of officers from 
the military to the civil service : not that 
this in itself would prove an evil, if officers, in 
sufficient numbers for tbe proper discharge of 
regimental service, were appointed to supply 
the places of those withdrawn, although even 
then soma inconvenience would ensue, as the 


more intelligent and talented men are those 
drafted off to staff, civil, civil engineering, 
and political appointments. Out of this cir¬ 
cumstance arises an incompetence on the part of 
regimental officers. The native officers become 
the instructors of their European superiors— 
superiors only in rank and the indomitable 
spirit which belongs to the British. The 
more intelligent officers—such as were best ac¬ 
quainted with the native languages—being so 
frequently withdrawn from regimental service, 
those who remained were less acquainted 
with the men, and with the character of the 
classes of natives from which the recruits 
were generally drawn; they were also less 
competent to form acquaintance with them 
from lingual deficiency and short residence 
in the country. In the Bengal army more 
particularly these causes operated—at all 
events, the relaxation of discipline was most 
marked in that, although, from the character 
of the soldiery, it required more careful atten¬ 
tion than the armies of the other presidencies. 
The men were chiefly recruited in Oude, 
and in the upper provinces, and consisted of 
high caste Mohammedans and Brahmins. As 
a consequence, it was difficult to assign to 
them any duty the performance of which did 
not interfere with their caste; and they were 
far more afraid of infringing upon its obliga¬ 
tions than upon those of the articles of war. 
Striking illustrations of the inconvenience of 
the high caste constitution of the native army, 
especially of Bengal, have occurred when 
operations at sea, or for the execution of 
which sea voyages were necessary, were re¬ 
quired. On some occasions the Bengal regi¬ 
ments have landed in China half-starved, 
because the men would eat nothing cooked at 
sea, preferring to sustain themselves on bran 
and water. When, in 1858, a Bengal regi¬ 
ment landed in China, for service at Canton, 
they would not prepare their own quarters, 
because it was contrary to caste, and Chinese 
coolies had to be employed as their servants. 
Operations out of India were so distasteful to 
the native army of Bengal on this account, 
that there were generally symptoms of mutiny 
whenever they were ordered beyond the con¬ 
fines of India. When operating with the 
Bombay army in Scinde, their caste preju¬ 
dices nearly created feuds between the two 
armies. The Bombay soldiers, being for the 
most part low caste men, performed various 
important labours assigned to them, which 
the Bengal soldiers considered infra digni- 
tate • and not content with refusing to work 
themselves, they taunted the Bombay sepoys 
perpetually for doing so. Sometimes this 
had the effect of incensing the latter against 
their Bengal companions-in-arms, but in other 




Chap. XVII.l 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST 


341 


instances the Bombay men were made dis¬ 
satisfied, and either grumbled as they pursued 
their work, which otherwise would have been 
cheerfully performed, or threw it up with a 
disposition to mutiny. In the Punjaub simi¬ 
lar indications were offered of the general bad 
spirit of the Bengal sepoys, and the chronic 
interference of caste prejudices with the per¬ 
formance of their soldierly duties. In Aff- 
ghanistan the cold of the country during the 
winter rendered impossible those ablutions 
which form a part of the daily religious cere¬ 
monial of the Brahmin, and by neglecting 
which he considered himself deprived of 
caste, and deprived of it by the action of the 
government who sent him there. When the 
cold became intense, some of the officers, 
pitying the sufferings of men inured to a 
warm climate, gave sheepskin jackets to 
them. The necessities of the occasion con¬ 
strained them to wear them, but they were 
filled with indignation at the officers who dis¬ 
tributed them, although of their own bounty, 
and regarded the government as untrue to them 
for placing them in a condition which tempted 
them to wear the skin of dead animals, and 
so lose caste. When these troops came back 
from Affghanistan they were regarded with 
horror by their brother soldiers and co-reli¬ 
gionists ; among civilians as men without 
caste—worse spiritually and temporally than 
if they had never known caste—men who had 
refused to perish rather than violate their 
religion; and the people considered them like 
certain apostates described in the New Tes¬ 
tament—‘‘twice dead, plucked out by the 
roots.” This circumstance spread more or 
less disaffection through the whole Bengal 
army, and the high caste men lived in per¬ 
petual apjwehension of being ordered to some 
new field of enterprise, where caste must be 
sacrificed to military duty, or they themselves 
become victims to military rigour. Undoubtedly 
the terms upon which these men enlisted were 
that their caste should be respected. Whe¬ 
ther it was expedient to take men on such 
terms or not, these were the conditions upon 
which they enlisted, and they were jealous to the 
last degree of any infringement of them. That 
the government, and particular officers more 
especially, were not considerate of this stern 
bond there can be no question. The greased 
cartridges alone proved that. Nothing can 
be better known than that the Mohammedan 
has a conscientious scruple against the flesh 
of swine, and that the flesh of kine is ab¬ 
horrent to the Hindoo. The cartridges for 
the Minie rifles were greased with prepara¬ 
tions of fat from both. As soon as the soldiers 
came to know the fact, they became, in their 
own conscience, justified in revolt against a 


government which had betrayed them, violated 
its covenant, and inflicted upon them the 
greatest injury in their opinion possible—a 
deprivation of their ceremonial sanctity, their 
religious and social status, and their hope of a 
happy hereafter. The withdrawal of the car¬ 
tridges, and the proclamations of the govern¬ 
ment, all came too late. The soldiery no 
longer believed in the government, and the 
severe means adopted to put down the first 
discontent fanned the flame of sedition. The 
imprisonment and severe treatment of the 
cavalry at Meerut in a cause which made 
them martyrs in the eyes of their fellow- 
soldiers precipitated an aggravated revolt. 
The whole course of procedure on the part of 
the officers of the government, civil and mili¬ 
tary, appeared to be infatuated. They were 
either unaware of the extent and depth of the 
high caste prejudice, or conscience, as one may 
call it, in reference to ceremonial uncleanness, 
or, knowingly, they adopted means most cal¬ 
culated to aggravate the passion which their 
provoking measures had excited. It was 
wrong to order high caste sepoys beyond 
Indian territory, where, in the nature of 
things, caste must be compromised. It was 
wrong to grease cartridges with cows’ or pigs’ 
fat, or in any other way wound prejudices or 
convictions which the government was pledged 
to respect. If it be said that the government 
was compelled to do these things by the 
necessities of the cases, the defence admits that 
the covenant ostensibly made with the high 
caste soldiers was ab initio improper; that 
such men were unsuited to the British Indian 
army; and that, however well they served in 
some instances, it was an error to employ 
them while a man could be obtained from any 
other quarter. Either such men ought not to 
have been recruited, or, having been re¬ 
cruited, faith should have been kept with 
them and their caste in all its inconveniences 
and its absurdities, and military incongruities 
should have been scrupulously and honourably 
respected. 

Among the causes of inefficiency in the 
native army was that of too much confidence 
in native officers, whose sympathies were 
always with the high caste sepoys : and the 
Mohammedan officers were ever jealous of 
British ascendancy. Both to officers and 
men promotion has been extended too late in 
life. When the energies of men were gone, 
they were appointed to posts the duties of 
which they were not then able to discharge. 
There was too much respect for the seniority 
principle in the whole military administration 
of the company, and too much—perhaps un¬ 
consciously—of the bias of the aristocratic 
principle among our officers in the preference 



342 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XVII. 


for high castes evinced in the selection of the 
soldiery. 

Some of the evils here stated were seen by 
the late Sir Charles Napier, and led to the 
resignation of his high officers in India. That 
general was very unsparing in his censures, 
as well as sometimes lavish in his encomiums, 
and much allowance must be made for his 
characteristic strength of expression when 
perusing his opinions. Sir Charles, in a letter 
to an artillery officer, thus expressed his 
opinion of the condition of the army, and the 
causes of whatever inefficiency he perceived 
in it :—“ Delhi is the station where I should 
desire to see European battalions cantoned, 
but many say it is unhealthy. Men from all 
parts of Asia meet in Delhi, and some day or 
other much mischief will be hatched within 
those city walls, and no European troops at 
hand. We shall see. I have no confidence 
in the allegiance of your high caste merce¬ 
naries. I have seen a ‘ sweeper’ show more 
bravery in battle than a Brahmin and a high- 
named Mussulman. A high caste man cannot 
be attached to a Christian government. There 
are many errors of system which a comman- 
der-in-chief sees, but cannot change. The 
governor-general takes two-thirds of the 
power which the commander-in-chief ought 
to exercise, and the military board takes the 
rest! 1 cannot change the character of this 

army, which is bad and faidty as regards the 
system of discipline, and therefore I resign. 
Many of the old officers of infantry have been 
habituated to a bad system, and get into a 
routine of neglect from which the devil him¬ 
self could not drive them. Look at the 
nightly guards in the Bengal army — the 
sentries are alone, and all the rest go to bed! 
The whole Bombay army does not present 
such anomaly, and it arises from the ‘ system’ 
being bad. Still there are several very excel¬ 
lent disciplinarians in the Bengal army—men 
who take a line for themselves. Look at 
Gilbert, at Wheeler, at Huish, and a score of 
others. In the regiment of artillery I myself 
know at least a dozen first-rate officers. The 
Bengal army has no want of good officers, 
but it has want of a better system of disci¬ 
pline ; and as I cannot introduce one, coupled 
with other causes, I have resigned. Lord 
Ellenborougli wisely abolished Lord Auck¬ 
land’s injudicious system of ‘ politicals.’ Young 
officers commanding old ones, and war carried 
on without any plan! A happy-go-lucky 
mode, which ended in Cabul, and the same 

system revised by Lord D-.” It would 

appear either that Sir Charles was not always 
consistent in practice with his opinion, or 
else he found the necessities of his situation 
strong enough to overrule them, for he is said 


to have preferred military men to civilians for 
political, and even strictly civil, employ¬ 
ments, when his own administrative functions 
gave him the opportunity of making selec¬ 
tion. Mr. Thomas Campbell Robertson, late 
a member of the supreme council of India, 
and lieutenant-governor of the north-western 
provinces, declares that no person so largely 
used the power of appointing military officers 
for civil purposes as Sir Charles Napier him¬ 
self. On this subject Mr. Robertson, with 
great show of reason, remarks :—“ The prac¬ 
tice of thus draining the army of its cleverest 
members has certainly been carried too far, 
but it was the encouragement afforded by 
the prospect of such advancement that made 
Malcolm and others what they were, by 
stimulating them to qualify themselves for 
the highest political offices. The evil, too, 
it must be remembered, is not one inherent 
in the system, but might at any time have 
been corrected by each successive governor- 
general, if he had perceived the mischief now 
alleged to have thence resulted. But, in 
truth, no Indian ruler, when he wants aid in 
the management of a newly-acquired terri¬ 
tory, can resist the temptation to employ the 
fittest available person he can find; and this 
will generally be a military man, because the 
civil service has few hands to spare from the 
duties of the original settled provinces of our 
empire. No man in this way did the thing 
against which he wrote more than the late 
Sir Charles Napier, who not only drew mili¬ 
tary men from their regiments to act in civil 
capacities, but drove away six of the ablest 
civilians who were sent to his assistance in 
Scinde. The practice, if it be an evil, is only 
one of the many attendant on the too rapid 
growth of our empire; and it would probably 
be best corrected, not by debarring young 
military men from all hope of political pro¬ 
motion, and so preventing the development 
of much latent talent, but by rendering the 
command of a battalion so lucrative and at¬ 
tractive, as to induce the juniors to remain 
with their regiments, in the hope of attaining 
to that post. But it is not so much on the 
number as on the character and capacity of 
the English officers present with a sepoy bat¬ 
talion that its efficiency depends. In former 
times, when the attachment between them 
was at its height, the officers were, we be¬ 
lieve, fewer in proportion to the men than 
they are now; but then they were almost all 
good colloquial linguists, or in the way of 
becoming so; and though somewhat wanting 
in the graces of European society, had ob¬ 
tained an insight into the social system of 
Asiatic life, sitch as their more accomplished 
successors seem to think it beneath them to 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


343 


Chap. XVII.] 

acquire. The sepoy officer of the present day, 
equal to his predecessor in courage and con¬ 
duct in the field, and generally his superior 
in book knowledge, in manners, and perhaps 
in moi'als, falls far short of him in point of 
real acquaintance with those under his com¬ 
mand. This defect, though in some degree 
imputable to the system which makes escape 
from his regiment the great object of every 
young officer’s ambition, is still mainly attri¬ 
butable to the increased facilities of intercourse 
with England. Young men who are fre¬ 
quently refreshing their acquaintance with 
their mother country cannot settle down 
to India as their home in the same way as 
was done in the bygone days, ere steam was 
known, and a return to England was looked 
forward to as a remote and barely possible 
contingency. Tastes acquired in Europe do 
not readily conform to exclusively Asiatic 
pursuits: the native nautch i3 more than 
insipid when the opera lives in recent recol¬ 
lection ; and thus there is no community, even 
of amusement, to bring the European and the 
native officers into something like social inter¬ 
course with each other. It is impossible here 
to conceal the fact that the increased number 
of our fair countrywomen in the East has 
probably made the separation between those 
classes wider than it was before. It is al¬ 
leged, we know not with what truth.—but it 
is alleged by natives, that their best friends 
among European functionaries are lost to 
them from the moment of their marriage ; and 
they generally impute the colder reception 
they meet with at any but business hours to 
the influence of the lady of the house.” * 

The gentleman last quoted, although an 
advocate of the East India Company, has 
conceded that laxity of discipline had inflicted 
injury upon the Bengal army, and admits the 
full force of the statement made on a previous 
page—that making the sepoy liable to serve 
beyond India was one of the most fruitful 
sources of disaffection in the native army, 
preparing the minds of the sepoys for being 
more speedily and intensely acted upon by 
the advent of the cartridge question. “ In 
so far, therefore, as mere discipline is con¬ 
cerned, there, perhaps, is some truth in the 
assertion that the sepoy has been over- 
leniently dealt with at times when there was 
a call for rigour; but, as regards his scruples 
of caste, it can only mean that the govern¬ 
ment have adhered to the conditions on which 
the high caste men have entered its service. 
One of the first of these stipulations is that of 
not being obliged to embark. When service 
beyond the sea was in prospect, volunteers 
were ever to be found for the duty. Certain 
* Political Prospects of British India. 


regiments, called ‘general service battalions,’ 
were raised, upon an understanding that they 
were to embark when required. Of late years 
it has been ordered that all recruits are to be 
enlisted on this understanding. This order 
practically excludes the relations of half the 
men in an old regiment—men who served as 
much in the hope of being able to push on 
their kinsfolk as to advance themselves. This 
order, therefore, savoured of bad faith, and 
must have tended to add strength to the dis¬ 
trust of our designs, which, however engen¬ 
dered, was, during this period, excited by 
the malevolence of the native and the extra¬ 
vagance of the European press, until at last 
‘the cartridge’ appeared, with its alleged 
pigs’ and cows’ fat, to cement the union of 
the two classes of our subjects against us.” 
It is worthy of remark that the issue of the 
greased cartridges was not the order of the 
East India Company, but of the crown. The 
company’s officers, civil or military, would 
have known too well the certain effect of such 
a procedure to issue any such order. It 
emanated, like many other orders of late 
years, in the disposition to act irrespective of 
the company, or to overrule it, which has 
been shown by governors-general and the 
Board of Control. It will illustrate the spirit 
with which the board has ruled India to state 
the exercise of its patronage in reference to 
cadets. The appointments by the directors 
have been distributed among all ranks of the 
middle classes in England, more particularly 
among the sons of professional men ; but the 
directors have ever kept in view, as the chief 
objects of their patronage, the sons of those 
who served India or served in India. The 
cadetships given by the board have been 
chiefly to the sons of queen's officers, clergy¬ 
men, and of persons who could easily purchase 
into the queen’s service. No one can be ac¬ 
quainted with the facts without being well 
aware that the influence of the imperial go¬ 
vernment, as distinguished from that of the 
company, has been injurious to the Indian 
army. 

Major-general John Jacob, of the Bombay 
army, has published a series of tractates on 
the deficiencies of the Bengal army before the 
mutiny had destroyed it. These were en¬ 
titled, Tracts on the Native Army of India. 
He affirmed that the Bengal army was with¬ 
out order; that its officers were incapable 
generally of enforcing it; and that their treat¬ 
ment of the men rendered discipline impos¬ 
sible. The general is so high an authority, 
that his exact words will no doubt be pre¬ 
ferred by the reader:—“The officers of the 
Bengal army are formed exactly of the same 
materials as those of the other armies of India; 



344 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XYII. 


their native soldiers of material in its raw 
state perhaps somewhat better than that of 
the others; but from the hour he enters the 
service, the Bengal officer is trained to sink 
the European, and adopt the Asiatic. In the 
Bombay army the e feeble Hindoo ’ becomes 
half European, and adopts the feelings and 
ideas of Europeans, as far as they refer to his 
position as a soldier, till they become his own. 
In Bengal the European becomes half Hin¬ 
doo, and thus the commanding influence of 
superior energy and superior moral character 
(I deny any superiority of intellect) is in a 
great measure lost. This pervades the whole 
society in Bengal, but its effects are most 
glaringly apparent in the army. In the 
Bengal army there is a constant studying of the 
men’s castes, which the European appears 

TO THINK AS MUCH OF, AND TO ESTEEM AS 
HIGHLY, AS DO THE NATIVES THEMSELVES ; 

and the sepoys, instead of looking on the 
European officers as superior beings, are 
compelled to consider them as bad Hindoos ! 
Instead of being taught to pride themselves 
on their soldiership and discipline, the sepoys 
are trained to pride themselves on their 
absurdities of caste, and think that their 
power and value are best shown by refusing 
to obey any orders which they please to say 
do not accord with their religious prejudices. 
It is a grave mistake to suppose that religious 
feelings have any real influence on these occa¬ 
sions ; it is a mistake, which would be ridiculous, 
if its consequences were not so serious; but 
it is certain that the Bengal sepoy is a stickler 
for his imaginary rights of caste for the sake 
of increased power ; he knows well that go¬ 
vernment never intended any insult to his 
creed, however absurd it may be; but he 
knows that by crying out about his caste, he 
keeps power in his hands, saves himself from 
many of the hardships of the service, and 
makes his officers afraid of him. This is 
proved by what takes place in the other 
armies of India. In the army of Bombay, 
even a Purwarree may, and often does, rise to 
the rank of subadar by his own merit; in 
Bengal such a man would not even be ad¬ 
mitted into the ranks, for fear of his contami¬ 
nating those fine gentlemen, the Brahmins ; 
yet in the Bombay army the Brahmin (father, 
brother, or son, may be, of him of Bengal) 
stands shoulder to shoulder in the ranks— 
nay, sleeps in the same tent with his Pur¬ 
warree fellow-soldier, and dreams not of any 
objection to the arrangement! If this subject 
be mentioned to a Bombay Brahmin sepoy, 
as it is sometimes by Bengal officers, who are 
always asking the men about their caste, the 
ready answer is, ‘ What do I care; is he not 
a soldier of the state ? ’ The reply speaks 


volumes, and shows a state of affairs which 
the officers of the Bengal army cannot con¬ 
ceive. The system of promotion in the Bengal 
army is exactly in keeping with the principle 
of the immutability of caste. No individual 
merit can advance, no individual incapacity 
nor misconduct (unless actually criminal) can 
retard the' promotion of the Bengal sepoy— 
seniority alone is considered. What is the 
consequence ? The men, not feeling that 
their prospects of advancement in the service 
depend on the favourable opinions of their 
European officers, want the most powerful 
stimulus to good conduct. They are never 
disciplined (as I understand the word), are 
often mutinous, and never acquire the know¬ 
ledge of their profession which may qualify 
them to hold commissions with advantage to 
the service. The Bengal native officers are 
always totally inefficient, and necessarily so 
under the present system, because they are 
chosen without any regard whatever to their 
fitness to hold commissions, and because they 
are almost always worn out with age before 
they receive them.” This general statement 
of the inefficiency of the Bengal troops has 
been controverted by numerous officers of 
that army. Perhaps the keenest and most 
plausible of the general's opponents is 
Colonel Phipps, who has given some striking 
instances of the courage and discipline of 
Bengal regiments, not only in India, but in 
Egypt, the Punjaub, Affghanistan, &c. The 
colonel wrote early in September, 1857, de¬ 
claring that only such regiments as were 
badly officered would revolt. It was not 
then known that the whole Bengal army was 
in mutiny, and the colonel evidently did not 
believe that the revolt had extended so widely 
as the news from India informed us. His 
statements, however, proved either that the 
Bengal army was badly commanded alto¬ 
gether, or that it had deteriorated since he 
was more conversant with it, for on his own 
showing events rather confirmed his oppo¬ 
nent’s allegations. 

The opinion of General Jacob that no real 
alarm for their religion actuated the Brah- 
minical and high Mussulman army of Bengal 
in revolting, but only a desire for power, is 
not borne out by the facts, nor the observa¬ 
tion and testimony of those who were in the 
midst of the transactions themselves, and whose 
opportunities of knowing were the very best. 
Thus the late Mr. Colvin, the lieutenant- 
governor of the north-west provinces, in a 
letter dated 22nd May, after noticing his own 
address to the troops on parade at Agra, 
adds the following remarks:—“They all at 
the moment expressed their belief of my com¬ 
munications to them; and I have seen them 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


345 


Chap. XVII.] 

in a familiar way on several occasions since. 
They have undoubtedly been infected by a 
deep distrust of our purposes. The general 
scope of the notion by which they have been 
influenced may be expressed in the remarks 
ol one of them, a Hindoo, Tewarree Brahmin, 
to the effect that men were created of different 
faiths; and that the notion attributed to us, 
of having but one religion, because we had 
now but one uninterrupted dominion through¬ 
out India, was a tyrannical and impious one.” 

Mr. F. H. Robinson, of the Bengal civil ser¬ 
vice, describes himself as having been obliged 
to communicate to an old retired officer of 
Gardiner’s horse, and to a Mohammedan of 
rank, matters calculated to hurt their religious 
feelings, when he was startled by the manner in 
which his communication was received, indi¬ 
cating the loss of respect for the British autho¬ 
rities, and a sense of injury resulting from 
what was regarded as change of policy, and 
consequent breach of faith on the part of the 
government:—“ I shall never forget the looks 
of mortification, anger, and, at first, of incre¬ 
dulity, with which this announcement was 
received by both, nor the bitter irony with 
which the old russuldar remarked, that no 
doubt the wisdom of the new gentlemen ( sahi- 
bilogue, so they designate the English) had 
shown them the folly and ignorance of the 
gentlemen of the old time, on whom it pleased 
God, nevertheless, to bestow the government 
of India.” It may be true that a love of 
power was the main element in the high 
caste disposition to mtttiny some years ago, 
but beginning to deceive others, Brahmins 
and Mussulmen seem to have at last deceived 
themselves, for undoubtedly the feeling of the 
revolters has been made as plain as anything 
can be, and it is one of intense and desperate 
fanaticism. However Mohammedan princes, 
Brahminical priests, and all sorts of devotees, 
may have intensified or even created the feel¬ 
ing, it exists. The native press did much to 
call it forth, fulfilling the predictions of Sir 
Thomas Munro. But, whatever way accounted 
for, the sepoys became thoroiighly convinced 
that their best interests for time and eternity 
were endangered by the zealotry of the 
English, and they therefore set tlxeir lives 
against fearful odds, revolting where there was 
no chance of success, and where destruction 
was so imminent, as to be, humanely speak¬ 
ing, certain. So far General Jacob is wrong, 
whatever may have been the circumstances 
which, in the constitution of the Bombay 
army, or of the Scinde horse, may have em¬ 
boldened him to adopt the line of strong as¬ 
sertion upon which he has ventured. It is, 
however, more than probable that had the 
Bengal sepoys been dealt with originally 

VOL. I. 


upon the plan which the general affirms to 
be the only wise one, no revolt would have 
ever taken place. General Jacob maintains 
that the paucity of officers in regiments in no 
way relaxed the discipline of the Bengal 
army. He even goes so far as to maintain 
that native subalterns are always better, and 
that if companies and troops were commanded 
by native officers, it would be an improve¬ 
ment, the staff of each regiment being Euro¬ 
peans. Whatever be the merits of that and 
other matters of detail, the following picture 
of the Bengal army, drawn by General Jacob 
years ago, accounts sufficiently for the mutiny, 
and proves the necessity of reconstituting the 
army of Bengal upon different principles :— 
“ I repeat that the ordinary state of the 
Bengal army is such as must appear to an 
officer of the royal or of the Bombay army to 
be a state of mutiny. The men are not taught 
and trained instinctively to obey orders, and 
even the European officers are afraid of them. 
This is not wholly the fault of the regimental 
officers of Bengal. The evil is produced and 
perpetuated by the false ideas formed from 
the first moment a young officer enters the 
service in the school of errors, which the 
native army of Bengal is at present; and by 
the fatal effects of taking all power from regi¬ 
mental officers and concentrating it at army 
head-quarters, thus producing an artificial 
sameness of dull stagnation, instead of en¬ 
couraging the natural uniformity of progres¬ 
sive improvement. In the Bombay army, on 
the contrary, the native officer is invaluable, 
and his authority is respected, though he be 
the lowest of the low in caste ; because the 
practice in Bombay is for the European 
officers to make the Hindoos soldiers ; instead 
of, as in Bengal, the sepoys making the 
European officers half Hindoos. There is 
more danger to our Indian empire from the 
state of the Bengal army, from the feeling 
which there exists between the native and 
the European, and thence spreads throughout 
the length and breadth of the land, than from 
all other causes combined. Let government 
look to this ; it is a serious and most im¬ 
portant truth. The commanding officer of a 
regiment, with increased power and respect¬ 
ability of position, would feel increased pride 
in the service ; he woidd do his own duty and 
make all under him do theirs. At present he 
has so little power to do good, that in the 
Bengal army he too often becomes careless of 
doing evil. The prospects of all under him 
depending on their own individual merit, a 
healthy state of mutual support and assistance 
would soon be established, and no further 
complaints of the want of a cordial good 
feeling between the officers and men would 

Y Y 




346 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XVII. 


be beard. A discipline founded on mutual 
respect and advantage cannot fail of success. 
Without it no number of European officers 
would suffice to make decent soldiers of the 
sepoys of Bengal.” These are indeed re¬ 
markable words, and as they were written 
long before the breaking out of the Bengal 
mutiny, they were the expression of no after¬ 
thought. It is astonishing how the autho¬ 
rities of the Bengal militaiy service, the 
governor-general in council, and the directors 
at home can be indifferent to facts like these. 
It would, however, be absurd to throw the 
entire responsibility upon the directors, see¬ 
ing that the Bengal system was petted by the 
representatives other majesty in India—high 
caste sepoys were the vogue with high caste 
Europeans, and with none more than those 
whose duty it was most of all to correct these 
evils. The late Lord Hardinge had much to 
answer for in this respect; as governor- 
general of India, and subsequently as com¬ 
mander-in-chief of the forces in England, his 
opportunities of promoting amendments were 
great, and he saw and admitted all the evils. 
He was not, however, the man who, for the 
sake of the justice of a cause, would incur 
the odium of measures unwelcome to those in 
power ; while for good or ill, he stood, with all 
the tenacity of an inveterate conservative, 
obstinately in the old ways. But he fell in 
with the general spirit of governors-general, 
whose motto has been always in things civil, 
and to a great extent in things military, 
“ Assimilate with the practice in Bengal.” 
That standard is not likely to be again held 
up for conformity, and it is yet too early to 
affirm w T hat will be the new organization of 
the army of Bengal—perhaps of the army 
of all India. Dr. Buist, one of the most dis¬ 
tinguished scholars and public men in Bombay, 
has made the following remarks upon this 
subject, which have been much noticed both 
in India and in England :—“ We never can 
again have a military force in India in which 
we cannot confide, which we cannot bring 
ourselves to trust, or teach our enemies to 
fear. The extent to which our regular troops 
were in former days employed in police and 
escort duties was in the last degree injurious 
to discipline, while the very rigidness of the 
discipline and rigours of the forms required 
for a regular army, unfitted its components 
for those light and irregular duties where self- 
reliance, prompt and independent action, are 
so much more important than the formalities 
of the line, which not unfrequently stand in 
their way. The duties of defending our 
frontiers, of chastising our enemies, and of 
maintaining order and suppressing or detect¬ 
ing crime among the people, have no more 


connexion with each other than this,—that in 
both cases physical force must be resorted to ; 
in both cases men must have arms committed 
to their hands, with authority to use them. 
Yet, for all the great purposes of external 
defence, half the army until now entertained 
by us would have sufficed, had the deficiency 
been made up by police. For this last branch 
of service the native must always be fallen 
back upon. He may be made much more 
useful even than the European, and quite as 
safe. The sepoy mutiny could never have 
ripened into insurrection but for the ac¬ 
quaintance of the various corps with each 
other, the community of their feelings and 
interests, the identity of their discipline, and 
the frequency with which they had served 
together. A police corps is necessarily a 
local and an isolated thing. Were the ghaut- 
rangers to fly to arms, there is no reason 
whatever why any of the adjoining local 
corps should sympathize, co-operate with, or 
join them—very many reasons why it should 
be the opposite. The knowledge of the fact 
is quite sufficient to prevent a rising. Were 
it otherwise, we should just have lost the 
services of a single insubordinate body, which 
would be at once exterminated, and there at 
an end. With sufficient abundance of police 
corps there seems no difficulty whatever of 
our keeping India in perpetuity with an army 
exclusively English, or of maintaining English 
troops in reasonable good health, fit at all 
times for service, and without any inordinate 
amount of casualties, everywhere throughout 
the country.” * 

However much disposed to place confidence 
in the opinions of such a man as the editor of 
the Overland Standard, it is impossible to 
believe that any arrangements in respect 'to 
recruiting in England, or systems of Euro¬ 
pean reliefs, can remove the necessity of 
trusting in a great measure to native troops. 
If the government enlist only such men as 
will serve without any stipulations as to 
caste, they will be found in sufficient numbers. 

The high praise of low caste men written by 
Sir Charles Napier has been qualified by Gene¬ 
ral Jacob, who admits that the raw material of 
the recruits from Otide and the north-western 
provinces is superior to that of which the 
Bombay army is composed. Colonel Phipps 
describes the Bombay regiments sent to 
Egypt as incapable of serving, because of 
their physical inferiority. The high com¬ 
mendations passed upon that army were not 
borne out in the revolt of 1857, for several 
regiments revolted when brought into temp¬ 
tation, so that the authorities could not ven¬ 
ture to make very efficient use of that army 
* Dr. Buist’s Overland Bombay Standard. 




Chap. XVII.] 

until towards the close of the revolt. The 
Madras army, upon which the eccentric pane¬ 
gyrist passed no encomiums, bore the test 
better than that of Bombay. 

In the future military system of India, all 
these circumstances must be taken into con¬ 
sideration. In the case of Madras it will be 
best to “ let well alone,” and, by leaving the 
constitution of that anny untouched, it will 
he an instructive lesson to the sepoys in the 
other presidencies, and to the natives of India 
generally, showing them that there is no dis¬ 
position on the part of the government either 
to needless retaliation or unreasonable dis¬ 
trust. 

The Bombay army should be modified. 
It is easy to enlist recruits from the Belo- 
chee, Huzzara, and Affghan hill frontiers, 
from the doabs of the Punjaub, and from 
Scinde. A few Rajpoots might also be em¬ 
ployed, and also a few native Christians, pro¬ 
vided they are not taken from the wretched 
half-caste Portuguese. In the Island of Cey¬ 
lon recruits could be found, and, provided 
they were not taken from the Cingalese who 
inhabit the low country, but from the inha¬ 
bitants of the higher inland regions, and es¬ 
pecially the neighbourhood of the ancient 
capital, they would be found good soldiers. 
The Moormen of Ceylon, although bigoted 
Mohammedans, would also serve well as sol¬ 
diers; but they are such a money-loving and 
trading race, that there would be no likeli¬ 
hood of their enlisting in any considerable 
numbers. Arabs might also be employed in 
Bombay. 

The Bengal native army should be reor¬ 
ganized chiefly from Sikhs; a few Malays, 
Dyaks, Peguans, Arracanese, Martabanese, 
and even Siamese and Birmese, might be 
numbered among them. Separate companies 
of these nationalities could be easily attached 
to the infantry battalions, and would make 
good soldiers ; as cavalry they would be use¬ 
less. The Bengal artillery might also receive 
recruits from some of these races. There is 
no deficiency of material for an army in Ben¬ 
gal composed of orientals who have soldierly 
qualities, and would be faithful. A better 
army could be organized from the heteroge¬ 
neous materials here named than ever existed 
in the homogeneous high ca3te troops of the 
Bengal service. Considerable attention has 
been paid to the question whether our Cape 
Colony would not furnish suitable recruits. 
The Caffres certainly appear well adapted to 
the service; the Ceylon rifle regiment is 
composed of them. They perform garrison 
duty in that island admirably; and when 
they served in Madras they displayed spirit 
and soldierhood. An Indian journal of in¬ 


347 

fluence advocates this measure in the follow¬ 
ing forcible terms :—“ The recent proposition 
to raise Caffre regiments for service in India 
is, wdthout doubt, a most excellent one. The 
men of the Cape—brave, acute, and the best 
light infantry soldiers in the world—appear 
to us likely to supersede the untrustworthy 
sepoy to the greatest advantage. Their 
manner of warfare, their being eqtially at 
home in the dodging of bush or jungle - 
fighting, in which the keen sight and the 
unerring rifle decide the fate of the day, and 
in the deadly hand-to-hand struggle, in which 
personal strength and courage are of the 
greatest value; their sagacity, endurance, 
and habitude to the extremes of heat and 
cold,—all combine to render them the fitter 
for our purpose. The Caffre is a barbarian, 
it is true, but he is in that primitive state of 
barbarism in which mankind, together with 
the natural vices inseparable from a wild state, 
combine all the manly virtues; and w T e look 
upon him as far higher in the scale of huma¬ 
nity than the besotted and degraded Hindoo, 
sunk in effeminacy, cowardly and cruei as the 
tiger of his jungles, and clinging pertinaciously 
to the most horrible superstitions that v ? ere 
ever imposed upon the credulity of an igno¬ 
rant nation by a designing priesthood. Think, 
too, of the moral effect which the introduc¬ 
tion of this new race would produce through¬ 
out India;—a race as black as ebony, laugh¬ 
ing to scorn the very name of caste (that 
bugbear of our government), and in all pro¬ 
bability anointing their sinewy bodies wflth 
the fat of sacred bulls in front of the temples 
of Vishnu. The powder of the natives of 
India has always lain in the .fact of our 
depending upon native soldiers to garrison 
the counti-y. Let every sepoy be disarmed 
and dismissed; let a native soldier become 
completely one of the things that were and 
are not, and we can do what w r e please with¬ 
out reference to caste or any foolery of that 
description. To effect this, the Caffre must 
be well treated, well fed, and well paid, but, 
above all, taught to consider himself far supe¬ 
rior to the crouching slaves over whom he is 
to be the guard. But it will be urged, ‘ Sup¬ 
pose the Caffres mutiny; what then?’ This 
is easily obviated: make the return to his 
own country, a wealthy and prosperous man, 
the clear prospect of the Caffre at the end 
of his term of service, and we warrant he will 
serve you faithfully. Avarice is one of their 
ruling passions; frugality a national charac¬ 
teristic. Give our savage auxiliary his fill 
of beef, together with a constant supply of 
tobacco for his pipe, and he is content. Of 
course they must be officered by Europeans, 
and reduced to a state of discipline; but this 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 



348 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XVII. 


is easy to effect. It is our province to point 
out the advantage of the measure, and the 
benefits to result from its adoption, not to 
enter into details as to how it is to be effected.” * 
The employment of Caffres, or any other 
aliens, in Madras would be impolitic after 
the loyalty evinced by the Madras army; 
and if the armies of the sister presidencies 
be well constituted, modified by the intro¬ 
duction of new elements, and aided by a suf¬ 
ficient force of Europeans, especially in Ben¬ 
gal, there can be nothing to fear from Madras, 
flanked as she will be by newly constituted 
armies on her eastern and western confines, 
skirted by the waters of the Bay of Bengal 
and the Arabian Sea, and the apex of her 
peninsula confronted by Ceylon, where a 
reserve of Caffre troops might always be held 
available. Independent of these grounds for 
rejecting apprehensions as to the future peace 
of Madras, the conduct of the army of that 
presidency during the revolt gives such pro¬ 
mise of future loyalty as to deserve confidence. 
Officers of that army—men of high culture 
and extensive military experience—assured 
the author at the beginning of the great 
mutiny, that distrust pervaded the minds of 
officers who before had the most implicit 
confidence in their troops. The proportion 
of Mohammedans among the Madras sepoys, 
and the state of fanaticism in which the Mo¬ 
hammedan sepoys at that time appeared, very 
reasonably impaired the faith of these gentle¬ 
men in the fidelity of soldiers they had so 
long relied on. Events have shown that the 
organization of that force, and the relation of 
officers and men, have been such as to pre¬ 
serve the attachment of the troops to their 
commanders, and their fealty to the govern¬ 
ment. The following sketch of the spirit of 
that army was published in February, 185S, 
ostensibly by the Sheik Kirdawund, Madras 
army:—“From the 10th of May until the 
10th of November, 1857, a period of upwards 
of six months, the Madras army passed 
through the terrible crisis w'hich shipwrecked 
one army, and sorely tried, and in some 
measure overcame, the fidelity of another; 
and out of nearly fifty thousand of native 
troops not one man was punished for mutiny. 
On the contrary, wherever called upon to act 
against the mutineers, they did so faithfully 
and courageously. Nearly half the infantry 
regiments, and of the sappers and artillery, 
volunteered to cross the kale pane to act 
against the rebels, and the other half are ready 
to go there, or to China, Singapore, Birmali, 
or wherever else the necessities of the state 
require their services. Indeed, portions of 
the 12th, 38th, and 29th regiments are now 
* Bombay Telegraph and Courier. 


with the China force. The Straits settle¬ 
ments and China have been entirely confided 
to the safe keeping of Madras regiments, with 
only a wing of a European corps to aid them 
at Rangoon. The 17tli and 27th, with native 
artillery and sappers, are by this time with 
Sir Colin at Oude, whilst the Madras Rifles 
are being pushed up towards the same desti¬ 
nation. Nagpore, Ramptree, Jubbulpore, and 
Hoosungabad, in Central India, have been saved 
by the 26th, 28tli, 32nd, and 33rd regiments, 
nobly aided by the 4th light cavalry, to aid 
whom, and re-establish order round Saugor, 
&c., the 6th and 7th light cavalry regiments 
have been pushed forward in the height of 
the monsoon, and have by this time reached 
their destination. Nor is this all: to the 
eternal honour of the men be it recorded, 
that, although poor, from their frequent 
marches and changes of quarters, they re¬ 
peatedly volunteered a day’s pay for the 
assistance of ‘ their masters,’ the ‘ sahibs ’ of 
Bengal. Whenever Bengal sepoys have been 
found in the bazaars or public thoroughfares 
of the presidency our men have instantly 
brought them before their officers or the civil 
power, and in several instances where Brah¬ 
mins or religious fanatics have tampered with 

sepoys they have been denounced.What 

is the cause of the coast- army remaining so 
entirely faithful during a crisis which no one 
out of India, during the period it lasted, can 
ever appreciate or fully understand—when 
the empire was shaken to its foundations— 
when emissaries from Delhi, Lucknow, and 
every discontented chief throughout the length 
and breadth of the land, were entering our 
cities and cantonments, and preaching a cru¬ 
sade against the ‘infidel Feringhee,’ and pro¬ 
mising rewards, titles, jagheers, &c., to all 
who should assist in the holy cause ? It is a 
matter for deep reflection, and the conclusion 
to be arrived at cannot vary much from what 
I now attribiite it to—viz., the strict disci¬ 
pline, coupled with the lowness of caste gene¬ 
rally, among our Hindoo sepoys: I say Hin¬ 
doo, for all Mohammedans in our army are 
alike. We have none of those distinctions so 
common in the irregulars before Delhi and in 
the Punjaub, where one Mussulman with 
great pleasure cuts the throat of another for a 
monthly consideration of twelve shillings 1 
Affreedees, Persians, Affghans, Beloochees, 
and Pathans. Our Mussulmen, such as they 
are, in the infantry branch of the service are 
in the proportion of one in three, whilst in the 
Bengal army they number only one in seven. 
We have Syuds, Sheiks, Pathans—the two 
latter much mixed up now-a-days ; and whilst 
this revolt is called a Mohammedan one, not 
one Mohammedan out of our twenty thousand 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


349 


Chap. XVII.] 

in the infantry, cavalry, and artillery, has 
shown a symptom of disaffection. I do not 
believe either that the Mohammedans of Ben¬ 
gal would, even il they could, have organized 
this conspiracy in the army. They were 
greatly in the minority, especially in the in¬ 
fantry, and they had but little influence at 
any time. The mischief lay with the Brah¬ 
mins, and them only, until they had gained 
over the Mohammedans, Chuttrees, and Sikhs, 
the latter, however, in very few numbers. In 
my own regiment we rejoiced in only one 
Brahmin (some few years ago), a Mr. Caseram 
Pandy, who was certainly the greatest black¬ 
guard in the corps, and enjoyed more knap¬ 
sack drill than was good for him, I fear, for 
he was always going into hospital with pain 
in the chest! Since that time I find we have 
admitted another. With reference to the pub¬ 
lished returns of castes, I may mention that 
the figures under the head of ‘ Brahmins and 
Rajpoots’ represent almost entirely the latter 
class of men in the Madras army. It has 
been stated repeatedly that each Bengal corps 
had from five to six hundred Brahmins and 
Chuttrees in it. An average taken in three 
of the Bombay regiments is three hundred 
and fourteen; whilst two of the Madras corps 
number only forty-eight and twenty-eight of 
these castes respectively. Herein, then, lies 
the secret of our success; to this, principally, 
we are indebted for tranquillity. There never 
has been any undue respect paid to ‘caste’ in 
recruiting for our army; if Brahmins and 
Chuttrees chose to enlist, they met with the 
same treatment as the Pariah, the Telinga, or 
the Tamiel sepoy; they have invariably given 
themselves airs, and, going on foreign service, 
have talked much about their caste, but my 
invariable practice was to take no notice of 

their absurd pretensions.When on duty 

the men neglect the usual ablutions before a 
meal. Not so in Bengal; off comes not only 
belts but uniform, and in a state as nearly 
approaching to nakedness as possible, and 
generally far away from the guard, the meal 
is cooked by themselves, and disposed of. If 
the shadow of an officer or low caste man 
falls on their food, they throw it away ! When 
I called on General Godwin, in Rangoon, a 
havildar of my corps came up to me, and re¬ 
ported that the general, seeing him lying 
down on his carpet in uniform (our invariable 
rule for orderlies), had asked him why he did 
not take off his regimentals, aiid make him¬ 
self more comfortable! I simply asked, 
‘Well! what was your reply?’ He said, 

' I told the general I belonged to the Madras 
— regiment, that it was not our custom, and 
that I should be punished if seen by any of 
the officers.’ To which he added, ‘ The 


general bade me do as I liked.’ When my 

corps was ordered to embark for -, the 

subadar-major was deputed by the men to 
inquire of me whether I was certain that good 
water was on board for their use, and they 
were perfectly satisfied when I assured them 
I had tasted it, and that it was much better 
than what they usually drank on the march. 
When we arrived at our destination a Bengal 
corps had to be embarked, and the men in¬ 
sisted on the captain’s starting the water out 
of his tanks, and allowing them to refill them 
with their own immaculate hands ! This was 
done : the ships were delayed for the purpose ! 
The sepoys filled large casks, rolled them 
down to the boats upwards of a mile, when 
they were towed astern of the boats to the 
steamers, and put on board; but when the 
men, out at sea, came to drink this pure and 
undefiled element, great was their consterna¬ 
tion to find it horribly brackish! The casks 
in transit had let in the salt water ! During 
another trip on board the Oriental, our men, 
towards the end of the voyage, were served 
out water which was quite hot. They told 
me it made them sick unless they kept it in 
their tins until it became cold ! I inquired, and 
sure enough it was so. The steam was con¬ 
densed, and the supply barely kept up with 
the demand! I explained the matter to the 
sepoys, showing them, with the aid of a good- 
natured officer of the vessel, how fresh water 
was being made out of salt! They were 
thunderstruck, and declared the liichnut (in¬ 
vention) was worth going a voyage to see, 
and that there was no knowing where the 
English people’s cleverness would end : it was 
their private opinion for some time after that 
we might, if we tried, dry up the sea. ‘ Allah 
only can tell.’ The Madras troops, to a man, 
on the line of march, drink water from leathern 
bags. The high caste Bengalese would not 
condescend to wash their feet in it! Sir 
Charles Napier tells us that the Bengal sepoys 
are two inches taller than British soldiers of 
the line. What their average may be I know 
not, but I believe our corps are very much 
the same height as the line. We average 
from five feet seven inches to five feet eight 
inches in different regiments of which I pos¬ 
sess size rolls ; and some companies of sappers 
average only five feet six inches, and of-these 
little fellows Lord Gough in China, Napier in 
Scinde, Godwin in Birmah, and, lastly and 
very recently, Outram in Persia, have formed 
the most gratifying opinion. Some of them 
are now in Oude, others with the Malwa field 
force, and I shall be surprised if they do not 
again win golden opinions from those they 
serve under. They are generally considered 
to be very low caste, but this is not quite 





350 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[ Chap. XVII. 


correct; there may be a sprinkling of Pariah 
cook-boys, but the generality of them differ 
in no way from the infantry, save in greater 
muscle, the result of their daily labour as 
sappers. So long ago as the first China war 
Lord Gough exclaimed, ‘ These Bengal volun¬ 
teers give more trouble than all the rest of the 
army ! ’ (in those days the fleet was carrying 
a large force, including five Madras native regi¬ 
ments). And why was this ? Because their 
caste required that they should land, perform 
their ablutions, and then eat, whilst the rest 
could cook on board ship, and enjoy their fish 
curry there as much as if they were on land. 
In Birmah Madras sepoys were employed in 
draining forts; and one occasion Lieutenant 

W-, the executive engineer, begged me 

to come with him to set the men of my regi¬ 
ment at work, ‘ as he was afraid they might 
refuse him.’ The work required was really 
that of scavengers—viz., clearing out a choked 
up culvert under the fort -walls. The stench 
was fearful, but the work was as necessary 
for the health of the troops themselves as it 
was for that of the Europeans, and, with 
nothing worse than a wry face and much 
laughter, these fellows did the work in two 
days. I was greatly gratified to hear some¬ 
time afterwards, from an officer of the Bengal 
engineers, that Lieutenant W- had re¬ 

ported to him the good conduct of the 
sepoys, adding ‘ that they worked every bit 
as well as Europeans ! ’ To make the Madras 
army still more efficient and attached to their 
officers but one thing is required—viz., the 
bestowal of greater powers on the command¬ 
ing officers of corps, and less interference at 
head-quarters, to which may be added, per¬ 
haps, a small quantity of red tape! I will 
give only one instance of undue interference, 
which, if continued in, would ruin any native 
army. A Mohammedan sepoy was tried by 
a native court-martial, convicted, and sen¬ 
tenced to dismissal for gross insolence and 
insubordination in the orderly room. He 
was dismissed; the proceedings were quite 
formal,—approved and countersigned from 
head-quarters,—and the man was expelled 
the regiment. He happened some time after¬ 
wards to be at Bangalore, where the com¬ 
mander-in-chief was staying, and, I suppose, 
by perpetual annoyance and petitions to the 
gallant old soldier, he succeeded in creating a 
feeling of pity. However that may be, it 
resulted in an order for his restoration ! He 
was restored, and a more ill-conditioned brute 
never handled a musket. Cunning enough to 
keep himself clear of further courts, he suc¬ 
ceeded in ridiculing, with others, his com¬ 
manding officer.” 

Whatever confidence may be placed in the 


Madras army as it is, or in the Bombay army 
modified both as to its constitution and com¬ 
position, it is evident that a considerably in¬ 
creased European force will be necessary for 
the occupation of Bengal and the north-west 
provinces, although much of the duty of these 
territories may be committed to Sikhs, Goor- 
khas, Beloochees, and that mixed class which 
may be so readily raised along the Scinde 
frontier and the country of the Indus. 
Amongst the various plans put forth as likely 
to prove effective, there has been none so 
feasible as that of sending European regi¬ 
ments by the overland route to Kurrachee, 
whence, by the steam flotilla on the Indus, or 
the new railway, they could proceed at once 
to Shikapore, Hydrabad, Lahore, Umritsir, 
Peshawur, and other posts in the north and 
north-west of India, Becoming there gra¬ 
dually acclimated, they could descend to the 
north-west provinces, and, by way of the 
lower provinces, to Calcutta, sailing thence 
for the Cape of Good Hope and other colonies, 
or returning home by the overland journey, 
having served en route at Madras, Ceylon, 
and Bombay. By this means regiments need 
not remain too long in India, which has been 
one of the chief objections to service there, 
not only because of the difficulty of furloughs 
from such distant parts, and the expense at¬ 
tending them, but also because long residence 
in the lower provinces produces disease, in¬ 
capacitating the soldier for vigorous duty; 
frequently a few years’ service in the lower 
provinces, or the capitals of Southern and 
Western India, destroys life, or leaves the 
seeds of disease or debility, which impair 
usefulness, if they do not abridge the term of 
existence. Formerly it w T ould have been 
impossible to accomplish a scheme like this, 
but the railway system now in progress 
in India, and the completion of the line con¬ 
necting the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, 
will render it perfectly practicable. 

A very remarkable address was delivered 
at the United Service Institution in April, 
1858, by Lieutenant-colonel Kennedy, of the 
royal engineers, on the influence of railways 
in India upon the efficiency of the army 
there, and the economy to the government of 
adopting a thorough system upon military 
grounds. If the statements of Colonel Ken¬ 
nedy be correct, then the future military sys¬ 
tem of India must depend upon the actual 
amount of railways intersecting the countiy, 
and the plan upon which they are constructed. 
The report of the colonel’s address is of such 
deep interest to the subject of this chapter, 
and to the general direction of military 
affairs in our Indian empire, that it does not 
admit of being abbreviated, its details bear- 







IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


351 


Chap. XVII.] 

ing so directly upon the whole question dis¬ 
cussed : — 

“ Taking the proportion of railways as 
existing in the United States of America 
for railways in India of 1 mile of railway to 
112 square miles of country, which he con¬ 
sidered was the lowest scale that should be 
applied to any inhabited country even where 
the general industry was limited to agricul¬ 
ture, if the railways were uniformly laid down 
in that proportion, the most distant points 
would be 60 miles from a railway. The 
proportion of railways in the United Kingdom 
was 1 mile to about 13J square miles, and 
would make the most distant points on the 
average aboirt 6f- miles from any railway. 
The population of America averaged 9 to 
the square mile: the population of India, 
124 to the square mile; and of the United 
Kingdom, 226 to the square mile. The 
density of the population in India was 14 
times greater than in America, and therefore 
as many times greater was the necessity for 
railways in India. According to the Ame¬ 
rican scale, about 12,493 miles of railway 
were absolutely required for India. So urgent 
did the considerations of railway communica¬ 
tion in India appear to him, both as regarded 
its industrial progress and military protec¬ 
tion and defence, that on his return from that 
country in 1852, after having held the ap¬ 
pointment of military secretary to the com¬ 
mander-in-chief, as well as that of consulting 
engineer to the supreme government in the 
railway department, he felt bound to address 
a report, dated the 15tli of September, 1852, 
on the subject of railway to the home govern¬ 
ment of India, in which lie fully explained 
the advantages of railway communication for 
military purposes, and stated that in India 
marching or campaigning in summer was out 
of the question, except at a fearful expense of 
life and health to European troops. It was 
shown in that report that a proper system of 
railways (while increasing the efficiency of 
the army) would enable a reduction to be 
made in the military establishment of India 
equal to £2,332,482 per annum. This would 
represent a capital of £58,312,000, if raised 
at 4 per cent., and if invested in railways, at 
an average cost of £6000 per mile, would 
furnish 9718 miles of railway. The report 
was sent by government to India, and circu¬ 
lated to the authorities there, and it was like¬ 
wise laid before parliament. Had the prin¬ 
ciples therein urged been adopted with the 
energy exemplified in the United States of 
America, 2000 miles of railway per annum 
might have been opened during the last three 
vears in India, which would have placed the 
authorities in a condition to deal effectually 


with the mutiny of the Bengal army, if it 
would not have altogether prevented the 
occurrence of that mutiny. In 1857 the 
foi'ce of the British government in India 
was 246,872 men of all arms, of whom 
42,500 were Europeans, and 204,372 natives, 
distributed at 228 stations, giving a ratio of 
native troops to European troops of nearly 
5 to 1. By another return made to the 
House of Commons in April, 1852, the 
queen’s and company’s European troops 
amounted to 49,408 men, the company’s 
native troops, including contingents, to 
276,432 men, making a total of 325,840 
men, and giving a ratio of above 5J natives 
to 1 European. The same return stated the 
military resources of native princes at 
398,918 men, making the gross ratio of 
company’s and native princes’ troops to Eu¬ 
ropean troops 13J to 1. It likewise stated 
the European artillery at 7436 men, the 
company’s native artillery at 9004 men, and 
native princes’ artillery at 12,962 men, 
making the company’s and native princes’ 
artillery together compared to European 
artillery as 3 to 1. The European cavalry 
were stated at 4133 men, the company’s native 
cavalry, including contingents, at 39,758 
men, and the native princes’ cavalry, at 
68,303 men, making the ratio of company’s 
and native princes’ cavalry to European 
cavalry over 26 to 1. The average of four 
years showed that the annual military charges 
for the 325,840 men, not including buildings, 
amounted to £10,106,680. He assumed from 
the experience they had had that henceforth 
the native troops in the Indian army 
should not be allowed to exceed those of 
Europeans, but that they might be safely 
employed in equal numbers, the artillery, 
engineers, and sappers, however, being exclu¬ 
sively, or, at all events, chiefly European. Even 
under these arrangements the force, although 
secure, would not be as effective for occupa¬ 
tion purposes as the larger proportion of 
natives would make it in consequence of the 
effects of climate on Europeans. YYith a 
proper system of railway intercourse the 
operations and strength of the army would 
be greatly increased, by enabling troops 
rapidly to" penetrate every district, so that 
the most distant points of the country might 
be on the average only 60 miles from the 
nearest railway. This would require but six 
ordinary or three forced marches to reach 
any point from the railway, or base of all 
military operations in India—a base of extra¬ 
ordinary strength, from the rapidity with 
which every part of it could be furnished 
with the required amount of troops, provisions, 
and stores. About 12,000 miles of railway, 




352 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XVII 


as before mentioned, would suffice on that 
scale, 6000 miles being main lines, along 
wbicb the army might be assumed to be dis¬ 
tributed at equal intervals in brigades. The 
length of those intervals would depend upon 
the aggregate strength of the army. The 
remaining 6000 miles would consist of second 
class lines, branching from the main lines of 
railway to provide communication through¬ 
out the local districts. On comparing the 
power of concentrating troops efficiently pro¬ 
vided with provisions and military stores 
upon the most decisive point or points of 
[ndia in the shortest time and at the smallest 
cost, with and without railways, he assumed 
that, in either case, the army of occupation 
should be posted in brigades of one European 
regiment, one native regiment, one squadron 
of European cavalry, one squadron of native 
cavalry, and a European field battery of artil¬ 
lery of four guns and two howitzers, at equal 
intervals, along the main lines of 6000 miles. 
It would require 48 days without railways to 
concentrate by marching a force of 53,000 
men from an aggregate army of 325,840 men, 
Avhich, composed as above, would cost an¬ 
nually £13,785,870, whereas an equal force 
could be concentrated by railway in 7 days 
from an aggregate army of only 100,000 men, 
costing only £6,214,530 per annum. Thus 
the 53,000 men could be brought to any one 
given point by railway in about one-seventh 
of the time, from an army under one-third of 
the strength, and costing under one-half of 
the amount, as compared with the assembly 
of a similar force at the same point from the 
larger army without railways. To assemble 
by marching 53,000 men from an equally dis¬ 
tributed army of only 100,000 men would 
occupy nearly six months, instead of seven 
days by railway. The advantages of railway 
transport for troops in India over marching 
as regarded time in concentrating a field force 
were as 24 to 1; as regarded the economy of 
military establishments, over 2 to 1; as re¬ 
garded the power of reducing the numerical 
force of the army, and consequently the num¬ 
ber of Europeans, as 3 to 1. The advan¬ 
tages of railways as regarded the protection 
of Europeans from exposure to climate, the 
rapid and successful issue of every Avar or con¬ 
flict, and the averting of those contingencies 
that produced war and disturbance, were be¬ 
yond calculation. Equally striking results 
Avould attend the establishment of railways as 
regarded every other department of the go¬ 
vernment ; and, above all, it would appear 
in the development of industry, trade, and 
commerce. He thought it was clear that 
without railways the army in India could not 
safely be reduced below its former numerical 


establishment of about 325,000 men, and that 
of this gross number one-lialf, or 162,000, 
must be Europeans, the whole costing about 
£13,785,836 per annum, while with proper 
railway accommodation the gross force might 
be reduced to 100,000 men, the Europeans to 
50,000 men, and the military charges to 
£6,214,530, and that this enormous reduction 
in men and money would be. attended with a 
seven-fold rapidity in bringing together a field 
force of 50,000 men at any point, as compared 
Avith the power which the larger army would 
confer without railways. The reduction al¬ 
lowed, too, for the artillery and engineer corps 
being maintained on their former full nume¬ 
rical strength, converting what was previously 
composed of native soldiers in these arms into 
an equal number of Europeans. And it was 
clear that railways would admit of an im¬ 
provement in the calibre of their field artillery, 
while they would facilitate incalculably the 
difficult process of bringing up siege-trains 
when required at any remote point. They 
would never then hear of generals being 
obliged to delay for weeks or months the 
operations of a campaign until a few heavy 
guns and stores were brought with infinite 
toil and cost to the front. He thought the 
question deserved the closest attention of 
every British and Indian statesman, and 
offered a solution of their principal Indian 
difficulties, past, present, and future. Even 
irrespective of the mutiny question, their 
Indian finances for the last four years had 
shown an average annual deficiency of revenue 
amounting to £1,676,333. The increased 
military expenditure of over £3,500,000 con¬ 
sequent upon the mutiny would thus bring 
the future annual deficiency of revenue to 
above £5,000,000 sterling, and this state of 
things must continue until a safe reduction 
could be made in the military force. The 
judicious construction of 12,000 miles of rail¬ 
way, which could be effected Avithin seven 
years, without any cost to government, would 
admit of a reduction in the military force to 
the extent of over £7,500,000 sterling an¬ 
nually, thus turning, by means of railways, 
an annual deficiency in the revenues of India, 
considerably over £5,000,000 sterling, into 
an annual surplus of more than £2,000,000.” 

Another advantage of an extensive railway 
system in India, upon which Colonel Ken¬ 
nedy ought to have dAvelt, is the frequent 
change of quarters to the troops which it 
would afford, and in that respect it would 
conduce even more to the health of the 
European soldier than by exempting them 
from long marches. Marching under the sun 
of India is not so detrimental to the health of 
the soldier as the colonel seems to think. 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


Chap. XVII.] 

Other officers have made experiments which 
prove that, provided the soldier’s head be 
properly protected, his clothing adapted to 
the climate, and his arms and accoutrements 
light, travelling in the daytime, and even 
when the sun is high in the heavens, is not 
so injurious as night marches. More fre¬ 
quent changes of quarters than at present are 
allowed or even possible, would be very salu¬ 
tary to the European troops, for the barrack 
accommodation is generally so bad as to be 
most injurious to them; and it would require a 
long time and a greater outlay than the funds 
at the company’s disposal for military public 
works will allow, to provide healthy barrack 
accommodation at all the company’s military 
stations. Sir William Napier writes of his 
brother Charles’s opinion on this matter as 
follows:— 

“When in Scinde he assailed the au¬ 
thorities with remonstrances; and himself 
planned and built the wing of a model bar¬ 
rack at Hydrabad, hoping thus to lead the 
government to an extension of his improve¬ 
ments. In vain; Lord Dalhousie forbade 
the completion of his superb barracks, and 
the materials collected for building the other 
wing remained to rot on the ground. 

“ When he became commander-in-chief in 
India he renewed his exertions to obtain 
good barracks, and again built model barracks, 
and laid down the true principles on which 
they should be constructed; again in vain! 
He was first thwarted, and then stopped, by 
Lord Dalhousie and the military board of 
India. 

“ When he returned to England, and while 
suffering under a mortal disease, even on the 
verge of death, he once more attempted to 
remedy the evils, and in his posthumous 
work, called Indian Misgovernment , sought 
to arouse public attention to the horrible 
system. 

“ That he was not tame or measured in his 
denunciation of ‘ the f rightful barrack abomi¬ 
nation' will be understood from a few pas¬ 
sages taken from many in his Indian Mis¬ 
government :— 

“ ‘ The barrack sacrifices soldiers’ lives and 
happiness to a fallacious, dishonest economy. 

“ ‘ I charge the court of directors, the mili¬ 
tary board of Calcutta, the government of 
Bombay, with shameful negligence of the 
soldier’s safety; and with good warrant, 
because they disregarded my representations 
when a high position and great experience 
gave a title to attention. 

“ * The Colaba barracks and king’s barracks 
at Bombay have destroyed whole regiments. 
I walked through the men’s sleeping rooms 
there— upon planks laid in water, covering 

VOL. i. 


353 

the foors ! At the Colaba barracks the soldiers 
die like rotten sheep under the nose of the 
council. 

“ ‘ In the Bengal presidency the barracks 
are extremely bad ; but more pernicious still 
is the number of men crammed into them ; 
losses by battle sink to nothing, compared 
with those inflicted by improperly constructed 
barracks and the jamming of soldiers—no 
other word is sufficiently expressive. 

“ ‘ Long experience and consultations with 
men of science, medical men, and engineer 
officers, have taught me that every barrack- 
room should in hot climates allow at least 
one thousand cubic feet of atmospheric air for 
each person sleeping in a room. This is the 
minimum; with less, insufferable heat and a 
putrid atmosphere prevail — death is the 
result. The soldiers rise at night feverish, 
or in profuse perspiration, to sleep out on the 
ground amid damp exhalations. To do so 
when heated by an overcrowded room is 
death. Some may escape, or merely lose 
health, but to escape is the exception—the 
rule is death! 

“ * This inhuman drain upon life, health, 
and the public treasury constantly goes on. 
It kills more soldiers than the climate, more 
than hard drinking, and one half of the 
last springs from the discomfort—the despair 
caused by bad barracks.’ ” 

The above burning words have been too 
recently given to the world for very much 
effect to have been produced by them upon 
those whom they were designed to influence. 
Until the whole barrack system of India is 
remedied, the best relief to the soldier is 
frequent change, and this can only be effected 
by the extension of the railway system. But, 
however improved the sites and accommoda¬ 
tion of barracks, the climate of most portions 
of India renders it desirable for the health of 
the English soldier, that he should not be for 
any long time subjected to its influence. The 
railway system will enable the government to 
remove invalids to the cooler districts, where 
they may retire for short intervals to recruit 
their exhausted strength. 

One of the chief deficiencies in the military 
administration of India is the imperfect pro¬ 
visions of martial law. These are inadequate 
to the good discipline of the army, and, in 
case of extensive revolt or popular insurrec¬ 
tion, their inadequacy is still more striking. 
During the revolt of 1857-8 Lord Canning, 
the governor-general, was much censured in 
England for not more promptly applying 
martial law to the disturbed districts, and for 
not relying more upon its power to suppress 
or prevent insurgency. These critiques were 
answered by his excellency with much point 

z z 




354 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


and justice, and in a manner which displays 
more completely the defects of the military 
system in this respect than would a lengthened 
statement and minute analysis of the laws 
bearing upon the subject. The governor- 
general’s defence, based upon the imperfection 
of the system, was as follows :— 

“But in truth measures of a far more 
stringent and effective character than the 
establishment of martial law were taken for 
the suppression of mutiny and rebellion. 

“ Martial law, in the ordinary acceptation 
of the phrase, is no law at all, or, as it has 
been described, the will of the general. But 
martial law in India is proclaimed under 
special regulations, applicable only to the 
regulation provinces in the three presidencies, 
whereby the government is empowered to 
suspend either wholly or partially the func¬ 
tions of the ordinary criminal courts, to 
establish martial law, and also to direct the 
immediate trial by courts-martial of all sub¬ 
jects who are taken—(1) in arms in open 
hostility to the British government; or (2) in 
the act of opposing by force of arms the 
authority of the same ; or (3) in the actual 
commission of any overt act of rebellion 
against the state ; or (4) in the act of openly 
aiding and abetting the enemies of the British 
government. 

“Neither the effect of martial law, nor the 
mode in which courts-martial are to be con¬ 
stituted under the regulation has ever been 
defined. But it seems clear that courts- 
martial cannot be composed of any but mili¬ 
tary officers, for there is nothing in the regu¬ 
lation to show that courts-martial as therein 
described can be otherwise constituted. 

“ Moreover, it should be borne in mind 
that in Bengal, beyond the limits of the 
jurisdiction of the supreme court, there was 
no regulation which provided for the punish¬ 
ment of treason or rebellion, and that the 
Mohammedan law, which, in the absence of 
express regulation, constitutes the criminal 
law of the country, does not provide any 
specific punishment for such crimes. Regu¬ 
lation X. of 1804 rendered a person guilty of 
treason or rebellion liable to the punishment 
of death only in the event of his conviction 
before a court-martial; and even a court- 
martial under that regulation had no power 
to try for treason or rebellion unless the 
offender was taken in arms in open hostility 
to the British government, or in the act of 
opposing by force of arms the authority of 
the same, or in the actual commission of an 
overt act of rebellion. 

“ The power of trial by court-martial did 
not extend to persons guilty of rebellion 


[Chap. XVII. 

unless taken in the actual commission of an 
overt act. 

“Under these circumstances the govern¬ 
ment might have been much embarrassed 
had Indian martial law alone been relied 
upon; and seeing that the number of military 
officers at the disposal of the government was 
in many parts of the country wholly insuffi¬ 
cient for the summary trial of mutineers and 
rebels, the government of India took a course 
much more effectual than the establishment of 
martial law. Having, first by Act No. VIII. 
of 1857, strengthened the hands of officers by 
giving them greater powers for the assem¬ 
bling of courts-martial, and by making the 
proceedings of those courts more summary, 
the government adopted measures which 
should give them the services not only of 
their own military and civil officers, but of 
independent English gentlemen not connected 
with the East India Company—indigo planters 
and other persons of intelligence and in¬ 
fluence.” 

MARINE FORCE. 

The East India Company maintains an in¬ 
dependent navy, which is placed under the 
direct control of the government of India. 
The force attached to the chief presidency is 
not so important as that connected with the 
western presidency. The navy of Bengal is 
very limited, and is engaged in the eastern 
Archipelago and on the coasts of China. The 
acting officers have no commissions, and 
neither officers nor men are subject to the 
mutiny act or the articles of war. The Bom¬ 
bay navy is of considerable power, com¬ 
prising fifty-three steam and sailing vessels, 
manned by 4286 European and native men. 
The cadets must not be under sixteen nor 
over eighteen years of age. The patron¬ 
age is in the hands of the directors. The 
Bombay navy has been chiefly employed 
in the suppression of piracy in the Arabian 
Sea, and the Persian Gulf. It has of late 
years been principally occupied in surveying 
those waters, and several of the officers have 
greatly distinguished themselves by their 
attainments and performances in that depart¬ 
ment. The government of India does not 
regulate this marine, although its power is 
placed at the disposal of the governor-general. 
Correspondence is maintained by the navy 
with the government of India with reference 
to repairs, provided the expense does not ex¬ 
ceed ten thousand rupees. In all other respects, 
such as ship-building, docks, steam factories, 
&c., the correspondence is with the directors. 
During former wars with China the Indian 
navy was greatly distinguished. 




Chai\ XVIII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


355 


CHAPTER XVIII 

HIE IMPORTANCE OF A KNOWLEDGE OF THE LANGUAGES OF INDIA BY GOVERNMENT 
OFFICERS—COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN ENGLAND AND INDIA. 


The experience of the past history of our em¬ 
pire in India and the East shows that the 
importance of this subject has been greatly 
underrated. During the war with China, 
in 1857-8, the correspondents of the Lon¬ 
don press repeatedly testified that one of 
the greatest embarrassments consisted in the 
small number of persons, civil or military, at 
Lord Elgin’s disposal, who were acquainted 
with the language. But for the missionaries, 
this deficiency would have proved a still 
greater difficulty both in the war of 1857, 
and in previous wars. During operations in 
Birmah, in all our differences with that 
power, the same impediment was felt; and 
although officers like Major-general Have¬ 
lock, conversant with oriental tongues, were 
attached to all the expeditions, they could not 
always be spared from their posts in moments 
when, either for military or civil purposes, 
in some emergency, it was desirable to make 
their skill as linguists available. In the 
transactions of peace no less than in those of 
war the same inconvenience has been felt; and 
it is now generally admitted, that whatever 
amendments are made in the government or 
administration of India, civil or military, more 
attention must be paid on the part of the 
company’s officers to the qualification of an 
extensive and accurate knowledge of the 
languages of our Eastern empire, and of con¬ 
tiguous countries, according to the particular 
official designation of these officers. In the 
arrangements made by Mr. Macaulay for the 
examinations for the civil service, there 
was an obvious eagerness to provide extra 
chanees for the students of Oxford and 
Cambridge. The studies so disproportion¬ 
ately pursued at the universities — and so 
injuriously to the public usefulness of the 
pupils—were selected as superior tests of 
general proficiency, and of fitness for service 
in India. The study of the languages with 
which the. young official ought to be con¬ 
versant, to hold intercourse with the people of 
India, is held in a lower place in the exami¬ 
nation than that of the dead languages of 
ancient Europe. An Indian civilian lately 
deplored the ignorance of oriental languages 
now so prevalent in India, and the tendency 
to perpetuate this ignorance by the present 
mode of examining for the civil service, in 
the following terms :—“ In former times there 
were always (among the civilians particularly) 
a few eminent men who had acquired a 


thorough knowledge of the spoken dialects, 
who were familiar with the ancient literature 
and the various systems of religion of the 
country, and who had studied the national 
and religious prejudices of the natives in the 
very sources from which they flowed. These 
men—and we mention at random the names of 
Sir William Jones, Colebrooke, Macnaghten, 
Wilson, Sleeman, Mill—were respected and 
trusted by the natives, and they formed a 
kind of channel through which a knowledge 
of the real state of the feeling of the country 
with regard to any measure of importance 
could be obtained. The presence of any one 
of these men at Delhi or Lucknow would 
have been worth a regiment,—nay, many 
regiments. During the last twenty years, 
however, the prosecution of oriental studies 
has been systematically discouraged. A fond 
hope was entertained that English would soon 
become the general language of India, and 
an impression got abroad that the time given 
to the study of Arabic and Sanscrit and Hin- 
dostanee was sheer waste. At how much a 
knowledge of the languages of India was 
valued may be seen by the regulations now 
in force with regard to the examination of 
candidates for the Indian civil service. In 
the first examination a candidate may gain 
375 marks by Sanscrit and Arabic. He may 
gain as many marks by Italian. In the se¬ 
cond examination (which has simply been 
dropped without any bill of indemnity being 
asked for) a candidate may gain 200 marks 
by one of the vernacular languages. He may 
gain 1000 marks by law, 400 by political 
economy, 400 by the history of India. These 
facts speak for themselves.” 

In the very highest department of govern¬ 
ment a knowledge of both the old and modern 
tongues of India would be useful. The phi¬ 
losophy of a language gives an insight to the 
heart of the people by whom it is used, and 
this is essential to the statesman upon whom the 
responsibility of their government devolves. 
Sir Charles Trevelyan says —“ I know from 
my Indian experience that a knowledge of the 
native languages is an indispensable preli¬ 
minary to understanding and taking an in¬ 
terest in native races, as well as to acquiring 
their goodwill and gaining influence over 
them. Without it officers charged with im¬ 
portant public affairs, feeling themselves at 
the mercy of a class of interpreters whoso 
moral character is often of a very question- 






m 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XVIII. 


able kind, live in a state of chronic irritation 
with the natives, which is extremely adverse 
both to the satisfactory transaction of busi¬ 
ness and to the still more important object of 
giving to the people of the country a just 
impression of the character and intentions of 
our nation.” 

Long before the outbreak of the rebel¬ 
lion in India a gentleman, pointing out the 
dangerous neglect of the study of oriental 
languages, of Sanscrit in particular, wrote :— 
“ A crisis in the social, moral, and religious 
state of India may not be far distant, and it 
will depend on the position which the Euro¬ 
peans scattered over that immense country 
may be able to take in controlling and di¬ 
recting that movement whether it is to lead 
to violent concussions or to a healthy rege¬ 
neration. It is difficult to prove mathemati¬ 
cally how so small a matter as the study of 
Sanscrit could have any bearing on the so¬ 
lution of such mighty problems; and those 
who look upon it as a.kind of lightning-rod, 
and point to the clouds rising on the poli¬ 
tical and social horizon of India, expose them¬ 
selves to be treated as alarmists, who exag¬ 
gerate the danger in order to raise the im¬ 
portance of the remedy which they recom¬ 
mend.” 

A man need not have been in India to 
see that in order to govern a people, and to 
gain the confidence and goodwill of a con¬ 
quered race, it is necessary to know their 
language. At a meeting held in Willis’s 
Rooms, on the Missions of India, Sir William 
Page Wood gave utterance to the same 
conviction:—“Much might be done by 
bringing the English and native minds as 
much as possible in contact. This was com¬ 
paratively easy, for the government might 
require that no native should take an office 
unless he could speak the English tongue, 
and that no Englishman in turn should be 
placed in a position of authority unless he 
was well acquainted with the native lan¬ 
guages. Great good must undoubtedly arise 
from such a regulation.” 

In all ranks of the civil department below 
the highest, there are perpetually recurring 
occasions for an exact knowledge, not only 
of the vernacular language in the district, 
but of that from which it is derived, and 
some of those to which it is cognate. The 
attention of the public has been drawn to 
this subject, and the proposal to establish 
a new oriental college has sprung out of this 
awakened interest, and at the same time re¬ 
acted upon it. The government also seems 
influenced by the general movement of 
opinion, and evidence has been taken from 
many men of eminence and extensive infor¬ 


mation on this class of subjects. Among the 
many channels into which the public discus - 
sion has flowed, is that of the value of San¬ 
scrit, as the great parent of the languages of 
India, compared with its derivations, which 
are better known among the people. Sir C. 
E. Trevelyan has thus given his opinion upon 
this part of the controversy:—“ Sanscrit is a 
key to the colloquial languages of India, and, 
what is of much greater importance, to the 
habits of thought, and the sources of the social, 
political, and religious institutions of the peo¬ 
ple ; but this is. only one part of the subject. 
The young men who have been selected for the 
civil service cannot be detained long in this 
country for the prosecution of professional 
studies; the elements of law have an equal 
claim upon their attention with the elements 
of the native languages; and the compact, 
symmetrical Sanscrit requires almost as close 
mental application as mathematics. The 
knowledge of that language which the young 
men would acquire in the limited time allotted 
to them would, therefore, rarely enable them, 
to master its derivatives and command its 
literature; while by applying themselves in 
a direct manner to the vernacular languages 
(as young people learn Italian or Spanish 
without previously studying Latin) they 
might, with the invaluable aid of an European 
teacher, get through the drudgery of first 
principles, and prepare themselves to profit 
by the less systematic, but more idiomatic 
instruction of their moonshee and pandit on 
their arrival in India, The professorships 
which ought to be first established in the new 
oriental college, acording to my view, are 
Hindostanee and Bengalee for Northern, Tamil 
and Telinga for Southern, and Maharatti 
and Gujeratti for Western India, to which 
Chinese, Sanscrit, Arabic, Persian, and 
Turkish might afterwards be added, under 
such arrangements as the council, of the col¬ 
lege might consider desirable.” 

In connection with the necessity of know¬ 
ing the languages of the country for general 
civil purposes, the question of the especial 
necessity of such qualifications for those who 
officiate in courts of law is increasingly dis¬ 
cussed. Mr. Nassau Lees, Principal of the 
Mohammedan College in Calcutta, gives the 
following account of an Indian court of law :-«■ 

“ While the junior civil servant should be 
balancing in his mind . the evidence of the 
witnesses, his whole attention is engrossed in 
endeavouring to understand what is being 
said. Few who have not seen it can realize 
the idea of a Bengalee native court; the din, 
the hubbub, the discordance of the many 
voices, Bengalee, English, and Hindostanee, is 
truly astounding. On the one side are heard 



C HAP. XVIII. 1 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


57 


the gentle tones of a mild Hindoo, pouring in 
soft suppliance his griefs, with accompanying 
promises, into the ear of some native amlah. 
On the other, the ear is assailed by the 
harshest language, often the most virulent 
abuse, bandied between two witnesses, or 
lookers on, apparently in the last stage of a 
violent altercation; and to this is added the 
unnecessary vociferations of some dozen po¬ 
licemen, who rush, gesticulating violently, to 
the spot, to increase the confusion. But 
above all rises the shrill cry of ‘ Mercy com¬ 
pany ! mercy! The slave is dead! he is 
dead!’ from some miserable wretch who has 
been unjustly cast in the amount of some 
thirty or forty rupees, to gratify the revenge¬ 
ful feelings of a countryman on better terms 
than himself with the sri-rishtahdar, or na¬ 
tive head clerk, who not improbably will have 
disposed of his good offices for one half the 
sum in dispute. Meanwhile, behold the as¬ 
sistant, the head of the petty court. Besieged 
by witnesses, beset alike by plaintiffs, de¬ 
fendants, and court officials all speaking at 
once—addressed, perhaps, in three, if not in 
four, native torfgues—he sits confounded—be¬ 
wildered. In vain he essays to comprehend 
the cause of the uproar; of what is said 
around him he cannot understand a sentence. 
Fain would he explain or proclaim silence ; 
he cannot speak a word. Oh, that an iambic 
would still the storm, a quotation from Goethe 
or Dante, an aphorism of Bacon’s, an expla¬ 
nation of d’Alembert’s Principle, or the defi¬ 
nition of a differential co-efficient! But, alas ! 
such things here are of little practical use. 
The clamour increases. The distress of the 
assistant augments; until at last, his court 
in the highest disorder, and unable to right it, 
he rushes in confusion from his seat, vowing 
never to return till he can understand some¬ 
thing at least of what is said to him, and say 
a few sentences intelligibly in some oriental 
language.” 

The importance of the languages of India 
to military men is beyond calculation; the 
safety of a garrison may depend upon this 
qualification on the part of its officers. A 
military man, who served in India, thus ex¬ 
presses his opinion as to the duty of cadets 
being well instructed in the vernacular lan¬ 
guages of India before being sent thither : 

“ After the cadets have been selected, they 
ought, all of them, to have at least one year s 
professional instruction at a military college.” 
One of the reasons for this is—“ To teach 
them the elements of the native languages, 
which can be learnt with greater facility 
and exactness from well-instructed European 
professors than from moonshees and pandits. 
And again —‘‘ It should not be left, as it is 


at present, to the discretion of a young man 
whether he will pass in the native languages 
or not. The power of understanding his 
men and of rendering himself intelligible 
should be considered an indispensable quali¬ 
fication, and those who cannot or will not 
acquire the necessary accomplishment should 
be removed from the service. The office of 
regimental interpreter and the practice of 
interpreting at courts-martial should be 
abolished. Every officer should be presumed 
to understand the language of his soldiers.” 

THE FACILITIES OF COMMUNICATION WITH 
INDIA. 

Facilities of communication between India 
and England are essential alike to the inte¬ 
rests of commerce and the government. The 
British merchant desires to have a prompt 
and frequent transmission of information con¬ 
cerning the state of the markets, and such a 
rapid mode of conveyance between the two 
countries as will enable himself or his em¬ 
ployes to visit India on occasions of emer¬ 
gency, or his agents there to come to Eng¬ 
land, when the transmission of intelligence is 
not sufficient for their mutual purposes. 

The telegraph is of course the grand mode of 
conveying intelligence by summary ; but not¬ 
withstanding the value of India to English 
commerce, and the exigencies of the govern¬ 
ment, no proper efforts have been made up to 
this date (May, 1858) to secure telegraphic 
lines from India to England. It has excited 
the astonishment of every government in 
Europe that England has neglected a matter 
so vital to her. The feeling of foreign 
governments and of British residents abroad 
was indicated in April, 1858, by the following 
letter to the Times from one of its foreign 
correspondents :—“ It is of such vital import¬ 
ance to England that electric communication 
should be established between some point in 
Europe and Alexandria, that I must, at the 
l'isk of being considered an intolerable bore, 
again return to the subject. It is a matter of 
indifference whether the Austrians construct 
a submarine telegraph from Bagusa to Alex¬ 
andria, or whether M. Bonelli lays down a 
wire between Malta and the last-mentioned 
city, but it appears to me that the represen¬ 
tatives of the nation ought to take up the 
matter, and insist on her majesty's govern¬ 
ment coming to an immediate decision on the 
subject. No decisive step has yet been taken 
by England towards the realization of the 
plan for obtaining more speedy intelligence 
from India and China. The subject evidently 
occupies the attention of your Turin corre¬ 
spondent as much as it does mine, and his 
observation—that it might be good policy to 



358 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chat. XVIII. 


encouiage both Austria and Sardinia to con¬ 
struct an electric telegraph to Alexandria— 
deserves attention. As was said in my letter 
of the 20th of February, Austria would be 
content if the British government would 
pledge itself to send despatches to the amount 
of £10,000 per annum, and the assurance has 
since been given me that, in fact, she requires 
little more from England than her ‘ moral 
assistance.’ The last official communication 
made to the Austrian cabinet was, that Eng¬ 
land could not permit Austria to have tele¬ 
graph stations either at Corfu or Zante. Are 
the gentlemen in the Red-tape and Sealing- 
wax Office aware that an Austrian post-office 
has been established at Corfu for a long series 
of years, and that a great part of the corre¬ 
spondence from the East passes through it ? 
‘ We so much require the telegraphic com¬ 
munication,’ say the Austrians, ‘ that we shall 
not object to employ Englishmen as tele¬ 
graphists in Corfu and Zante, if the British 
government should wish it. We are also 
ready and willing to lay down the two links 
—from Trieste to Corfu and Zante—in the 
great electric chain, at our own expense and 
risk.’ The authorities in the department of 
commerce have authorized me to state that if 
the British government should persist in its 
resolution not to allow them to establish sta¬ 
tions in Corfu and Zante, they will permit 
any respectable English company, which is 
willing to construct the telegraph, to have an 
establishment at Trieste. The Turkish go¬ 
vernment is about to open a telegraphic com¬ 
munication with Greece, and that kingdom 
has already announced its intention to lay 
down a wire to Zante as soon as that island 
is brought into connection with Corfu and 
Trieste. It is worthy of mention that the 
director of the submarine telegraph office at 
Malta is a German; the principal clerk is a 
Dutchman, the second clerk an Ionian, and 
the fourth member of the establishment is 
either a Frenchman or an Italian.” 

For the transmission of mails provision has 
been recently made, which are great improve¬ 
ments upon the past condition of affairs in 
this matter. Weekly communication with 
India by post has been opened up through the 
Peninsula and Oriental Packet Company, via 
Gibraltar, Malta, and Alexandria. 

The long voyage round the Cape of Good 
Hope in sailing transports injured the health 
of the troops, who were seldom allowed such 
accommodation as even a proper consideration 
of their necessities would have conceded. 
This route is still used, but powerful steamers 
are employed, which greatly reduce the time 
expended in transport. 

The overland route by Suez was first 


adopted during the great revolt, when the 
government, with apparent reluctance, yielded 
to the pressure of public opinion, and nego¬ 
tiated with the Porte for permission to tra¬ 
verse the dominions of the Egyptian vice¬ 
royalty. A railroad has been at last com¬ 
pleted across the isthmus; and should an 
electric telegraph cable be carried to India, 
both the speedy transmission of intelligence 
and orders, and the quick transit of reinforce¬ 
ments and materiel of war can be easily 
effected. Since the adoption of the overland 
route to India, the improvement in Egypt 
lias been such as to impress profoundly the 
people and government of that country with 
the advantages of closer connection with 
England, and of becoming more imbued with 
the ideas and aspirations of English civiliza¬ 
tion. Decaying cities have become regene¬ 
rated, a highway has appeared in the desert, 
the springs of industry and commerce have 
begun to act, and Egypt bids fair to become 
the ally of England, and the partaker of her 
material prosperity as well as the promoter of 
her renown. 

Both the English and foreign public are, 
however, agitating other projects of great 
magnitude. One of these has for its champion 
M. de Lesseps, and is patronized by the 
French government. The public of France, 
and of a considerable portion of the continent 
of Europe, also favour this scheme ; nor are 
there wanting English merchants and capi¬ 
talists ready to engage in the undertaking. 
M. Thouvenel, the representative of the 
French emperor at the court of the sultan, 
made a formal application at the Porte for a 
firman permitting and encouraging tbe under¬ 
taking, which, in the spring of 1858, was 
definitively refused, the English Foreign-office 
having used all its influence against the appli¬ 
cation of M. Thouvenel. The scheme of M. 
de Lesseps is a ship canal across the Isthmus 
of Suez, ninety miles in length.* According 
to M. de Lesseps, this canal would answer 
the purposes of commerce and of travel, and 
can be executed and maintained profitably, f 
A sort of congress of engineers from various 
countries was brought together on the spot, 
and a report was drawn up in favour of the 
project, the elaboration and arrangement of 
which is indebted to the distinguished talents 
of Charles Manby, Esq., of the London Insti¬ 
tution of Civil Engineers, a man singularly 

* New Facts and Figures relative to the Isthmus of 
Suez Canal. Edited by Ferdinand de Lesseps. Witt a 
Reply to tbe Edinburgh Review. By Barthelemy St. 
Hilaire, Member of the Institute of France. 

f Parcement de VIsthme de Suez—Rapport et Projet 
de la Commission Internationale. Paris, Henry Plow, 
1856. 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


359 


Chap. XVIII.] 

well qualified for such an undertaking. Not¬ 
withstanding this favourable report, British 
engineers of great experience and reputation 
have, however, declared the scheme imprac¬ 
ticable, and among them the great Stephen¬ 
son,* whose opinion weighs so much in Eng¬ 
land. The British government has uniformly 
opposed this plan, but not with that frankness 
and candour which became the importance of 
the subject; for at first the government pleaded 
that, the scheme being impracticable, it was a 
duty to save English capitalists from a ruinous 
speculation, but, when closely pressed, the 
chief minister, Lord Palmerston, in his place 
in parliament, avowed that the opening of a 
ship canal across the Isthmus of Suez would 
give France, as a Mediterranean power, too 
much influence in the East, and enable her, 
under certain contingencies, to thwart the 
views of England, and possibly to endanger 
her hold upon her Indian empire. The Earl 
of Derby’s government, in 1858, opposed the 
scheme upon the same grounds as those urged 
by Lord Palmerston; and it was alleged that 
the Emperor Napoleon III. admitted that 
England was justified in receiving the scheme 
with national jealousy, although it would 
appear that, if such were his majesty's opinion, 
it did not interfere with his patronage of it, 
nor with the eagerness of his government to 
accomplish it, or see it accomplished. The 
determined refusal of the sultan to give his 
permission to make the canal extinguishes the 
project for the present; and unless French 
influence overpower that of England at Con¬ 
stantinople (at present not a probable event), 
the canalization of the Isthmus of Suez must 
be abandoned by France, however much she 
may believe it subservient to her political in¬ 
terests. 

The other scheme of communication with 
India is by a railway from Seleucia to 
Bussorah, from the Mediterranean to the 
Persian Gulf. The length of the line is so 
differently estimated, that it is impossible to 
form an opinion unless well acquainted with 
the country, and the engineering facilities 
and difficulties it presents. Mr. Andrews, the 

* In Nolan’s continuation of Hume and Smollett’s 
History of England , written by the author of this wort, 
and now publishing by James S. Virtue, City Road, 
London, the opinion of this eminent engineer, and his 
grounds for it, will be fully shown. 


chairman of the Scinde Railway Company, who 
is the chief advocate of the enterprise, says that 
the distance is eight hundred miles. General 
Chesney, who knows the country better than 
any European (even than Mr. Andrews), 
states the distance from sea to sea to be six 
hundred and sixty miles. A French engineer, 
M. Jules Falkowski, whom Mr. Andrews 
quotes as giving an opinion in favour of the 
scheme, represents it as more than double the 
distance named by General Chesney ! Such 
conflicting evidence on the part of persons so 
competent to pronounce an opinion baffles the 
judgment of the historian. This scheme is 
designated the “ Euphrates Valley Railway.” 
The objections taken against it are the great 
length of the line, the cost of its execution, 
and the improbability of its ever proving a 
line of traffic. These, however, are the ob¬ 
jections raised against every enterprise of a 
similar nature by those interested in opposing 
it. The Turkish government favoured the 
plan, and guaranteed a dividend upon such 
capital as might be invested, but the financial 
condition of the Turkish government did not 
encourage capitalists to place sufficient confi¬ 
dence in its guarantee. That of the East 
India Company was desired to insure a 
thorough reliance, and the Board of Control 
is said to have pressed the directors to extend 
it. They, however, refused. The projectors 
of the plan required other guarantees, wffiich 
practically amounted to the concession of a 
monopoly to their line. This circumstance 
shook the faith of those willing to speculate, 
as it implied that those who knew most of the 
circumstances under which the project would 
be carried out, did not dare to hope for suc¬ 
cess arising simply from its own adaptation to 
the ends proposed.* 

Meanwhile the scheme of the Suez Canal 
is pursued with the uttermost zeal—a sort of 
passionate nationality seems to animate the 
French public.]' 

After all, it is likely that the completion of 
the railway across the isthmus, and the pa¬ 
tronage of it by the English and Egyptian 
governments will decide this controversy, as 
well as bring India nearer to England. 

* Memoirs on the Euphrates Valley Route to India. 
By W. F. Andrews, F.R.G.S. 

f L’Isihme de Suez—Journal de V Union des Deux 
Mers. Paris. 





360 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIX. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

THE COMMERCE OF INDIAANCIENT INTERCOURSE BETWEEN INDIA AND THE WEST. 


Although the natural productions of the vast 
regions of our Eastern empire were detailed 
when, in foregoing chapters, these countries 
were described, and the adaptation of those 
productions to the purposes of trade, and the 
character of the local transactions of this 
nature, were sketched, it remains yet to take 
h general view of the commerce of our Indian 
empire. Certainly no topic can be more im¬ 
portant to a great commercial nation than its 
relations in this respect to the richest of its 
dependencies. In the prospectus of our work 
the purpose was expressed of giving to this 
subject especial attention; and had it not 
formed so essential a part originally of the 
plan of these volumes, yet its exceeding im¬ 
portance, as well as the interest attached to 
it, would demand a careful notice. 

In treating of the productions, religions, 
and literature of India, well authenticated 
resources supplied comprehensive and satis¬ 
factory details. For the elucidation of its 
early intercourse with the West there exist 
no such materials. India shares the common 
fate of nations, the illustrious as well as the 
obscure. Which of its many races first occu¬ 
pied it, and what master minds initiated its 
social systems, the gradual development of its 
singular institutions, the first glimmerings of 
its far remote civilization, are mythic subjects 
of bewildering speculation. The extravagant 
claims to an existence extending over thou¬ 
sands of years beyond the era of creation, 
with the kindred absurdities of the Chinese, 
Babylonian, and Phoenician chronology, are 
now fully exposed by the reflected light of 
modern scientific discoveries. 

The fables that commingle with the trans¬ 
actions of an infant people have their value; 
and those writers who fastidiously reject 
them from the domain of history, inflict 
upon it an irreparable injury. Many phases 
in the political life of a nation would, without 
a knowledge of them, be totally incomprehen¬ 
sible. They illustrate the origin, manners, 
habits, religion, and history of a people whose 
early transactions possess no medium of trans¬ 
mission but the traditional. What Heeren 
remarks of Grecian history is of general appli¬ 
cation :—“ Though it emanated from tradi¬ 
tion, and supplied the bards with subjects of 
song for several centuries, it does not follow 
hence that early Grecian history was an in¬ 
vention because it was poetical. The subjects 
of history, as presented by Grecian tradition 
and sung by the bards, were only interwoven 


with fictions, and so modelled as to gratify 
the national pride and adorn the popular 
religion.” 

Elpliinstone, in his preliminary observations 
to his History of India, states:—“ As the 
rudest nations are seldom destitute of some 
account of the transactions of their ancestors, 
it is a natural subject of surprise that the 
Hindoos should have attained to a high pitch 
of civilization without any work that at all 
approaches to the character of a history. 
The fragments which remain of the records 
of their transactions are so mixed with fable, 
and so distorted by a fictitious and extrava¬ 
gant system of chronology, as to render it 
hopeless to deduce from them any continued 
thread of authentic narrative.” 

The only history of any part of India he 
recognises is one of Cashmere, which, in his 
opinion, scarcely forms an exception. Sir 
John Stoddart (Introduction to the Study of 
Universal History) confirms this statement: 
—“ Their (the Hindoos) writings are innu¬ 
merable ; but, alas! there is among them of 
works at all deserving the title historical, a 
perfect blank.” 

These statements, it would appear from 
other authorities, are but partially to be relied 
upon. Of published historical works India 
can lay claim to none, but the dearth of his¬ 
torical records is positively denied by Colonel 
Tod, who has given to the public a History 
of the Rajpoots, compiled from Indian manu¬ 
scripts, which he found in the libraries of 
Indian princes; and he asserts that in these 
repositories many more works exist which 
would reward the researches of the learned; 
and that “ the works of the native bards 
afford many valuable data in facts, incidents, 
religious opinions, and traits of manners.” 
In the heroic history of Pertlii-raf, by Chund, 
he adds :—“ There occur many geographical 
as well as historical details in the description 
of his sovereign’s wars, of which the bard was 
an eye-witness, having been his friend, his 
herald, and his ambassador, and finally dis¬ 
charged the melancholy office of accessory to 
his death, that he might save him from dis¬ 
honour.” The controversial records of the 
Jains are also repertories of rich historical 
stores; and with these the colonel classes the 
records, works of mixed historical and geo¬ 
graphical character, rasahs, or poetical legends 
of princes which are common, local paranas, 
religious comments and traditionary couplets, 
with authorities of less dubious character— 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST 


3G1 


Chap. XIX.] 

namely, inscriptions cut on rocks, coins, cop¬ 
per-plate grants, containing chapters of im¬ 
munities, and expressing many singular fea¬ 
tures of civil government—constitute no des¬ 
picable materials for the historian. The 
colonel concludes that the ancient records of 
the Hindoos are more complete than the early 
annals of the European states. 

The philological labours of the German 
school,—Grimms, Bopp, Zeus, and several 
other eminent Teutonic scholars,—aided by 
the Irish, French, and a few noteworthy 
Britons, prosecutors of Celtic researches, have 
supplied abundant undeniable proofs of the 
close affinities which subsist between the 
Sanscrit, the sacred language of the Hindoos, 
and the languages of ancient Greece and 
Rome, as well as those of the Celtic, Teu¬ 
tonic, and Sclavonic nations. These men 
have succeeded in placing the history of 
mankind in a more intelligible point of view, 
and possibly the study of Indian literature 
will enable us to evolve from its drapery of 
fiction the truths contained in the rasahs and 
paranas, to trace the remote history of 
India, and to reflect an ethnological as well 
as a philological light on the relations the 
varieties of the human family bear to one 
another, and supply an additional and power¬ 
ful argument for connecting the origin of its 
inhabitants with that of the other parts of the 
globe. 

Both Brahmins and Buddhists have nume¬ 
rous books. The Brahminical are extremely 
voluminous, and all written in the Sanscrit, 
which, from time immemorial, has ceased to 
be a spoken language. The prevalent opinion 
is that it was never fully known in India, 
except to the sacerdotal caste, and the alpha¬ 
betic character in which it was written differed 
from all other alphabets. So rigidly did the 
Brahmins conceal their sacred books, that 
their existence was not knowm to European 
scholars till recently. Coelius Rhodiginus, 
the teacher of the celebrated Scaliger, the 
contemporary of Henry VIII., asserts that 
letters were entirely unknown to the Indians. 
The sacred books are no longer sealed books ; 
they abound in libraries, public and private, 
and several have been translated into English, 
and other modern languages, and many pub¬ 
lished. In all probability, the day is not far 
distant wffien the anticipations of that great 
oriental linguist, Professor Wilson, will be 
realized, and the texts of the Vedas them¬ 
selves, despite the exclusive care with which 
they have been guarded from any but Brah¬ 
minical perusal, and the difficulties in the 
way of interpretation, will be read with as 
much certainty as any other Sanscrit compo¬ 
sition, and the adage, that Hindoo antiquities 

VOL. i. 


can only be satisfactorily explored in India 
itself, which Heeren reiterates, shall become 
obsolete. 

To whatever extent, and however valuable, 
may be the materials for the history of ancient 
India which exist in native archives, the his¬ 
torian of that interesting empire w r ould at 
present in vain seek aid in that quarter. The 
earliest ray of light that flickers on its visible 
existence, is shed by the. sacred text, and the 
knowledge to be there gleaned is very limited 
—indeed, merely conjectural. The river 
Euphrates, and the territories immediately to 
the east of its banks, were, to the comprehen¬ 
sion of the Jews, “the ends of the earth.” * 

The extensive caravan routes, to which the 
books of the Old Testament directly refer, 
pursued at an early period for the convey¬ 
ance, from the East to the kingdoms of the 
West, of the rich manufactures of that opu¬ 
lent region seem to have been formed for the 
exportation of Indian produce. There are 
strong grounds for concluding, as Dr. Vincent 
has observed, that the embroidered w r ork and 
the chests of rich apparel mentioned in the 
twenty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel, — pro¬ 
nounced by Michaelis the most ancient monu¬ 
ment of mercantile history,—as brought from 
Haran, Canneh, and other towns on the Eu¬ 
phrates, were not manufactured on the confines 
of that stream, but in all probability imported 
from the more distant countries of Eastern 
Asia; and that the supplies, of which “precious 
cloths” constituted the staple, conveyed across 
Arabia by way of Dedan and Idumea, were 
likewise a branch of Indian commerce. The 
ingenious author of the Ruins of Palmyra, 
on the sixteenth verse of the chapter just re¬ 
ferred to,—“ Syria was thy merchant by rea¬ 
son of the multitude of the wares of thy 
making; they occupied in the fairs with 
emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and 
fine linen, and coral, and agate,”—supposes 
that it was the East Indian trade •which so 
enriched that city, and he imagines that this 
was at least as ancient as the time of Solomon. 
Tyre, therefore, it is suggested, might have 
had these commodities conveyed to it in the 
time of the prophet Ezekiel through Palmyra, 
and Syria might have been its merchant for 
them. To the monopoly of this trade there are 
many considerations for attributing the power, 
unrivalled in extent, wealth, and degree, 
which Tyre early acquired, and which made the 
“ merchants of Tyre princes, and her traf¬ 
fickers the honourable of the earth,” j" and 
herself “the mart of nations.”]: 

The proximity of that great emporium of 
the earth, Tyre, “whose antiquity,” the pro- 

* Heeren’s Historical Researches. 

f Isaiah xxiii. 8 £ Ibid, xxiii. 3. 

3 A 



HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIX 


C f* o 

>~d 

phet Isaiah informs us, “ is of ancient days,” * 
for a lengthened period gave no impulse to 
the national enterprise of the Jews, nor af¬ 
fected that isolation which the characteristics 
of its policy had imposed. In the reigns of 
David and his son Solomon, tempted by the 
extraordinary prosperity of their neighbours, 
and encouraged, probably, by the friendship 
of King Hiram, and the recent acquisition by 
David of a tract of Edom, f and the ports 
Eloth and Eziongeber on the Red Sea, they 
equipped a fleet, which, under the pilotage of 
the Phoenicians, reached Tarshish and Ophir. 
The situation of these ports has been at ail 
times a puzzle to the biblical commentators, 
and to writers on geography. Dean Prideaux, 
and many other respectable authorities, agree 
that the trade carried on under Solomon, is the 
same as that which is now in the hands of 
our East Indian merchants. Some suppose 
Ophir to be the Island of Ceylon. This sup¬ 
position is thus far confirmed, that an ancient 
author, Eupolemus, states Ophir to be an 
island. On the other hand, the authors of 
the Universal History deem it the most pro¬ 
bable conjecture that Ophir was in one of 
those remote rich countries of India beyond 
the Ganges, and perhaps as far as China or 
Japan, which last still abounds with the finest 
gold, and with several other commodities, in 
which Solomon’s fleet dealt. A claim in 
favour of Sumatra has been made by Mr. 
Macdonald, who says, “ It is more than pro¬ 
bable that Sumatra must have been the Ophir 
of Solomon’s time. This conjecture receives 
no small force from the word ophir being 
really a Malay norm of a compound sense, 
signifying a mountain containing gold. The 
natives have no oral or written tradition on 
the subject, except that the island has in former 
times afforded gold for exportation ; whether 
to the eastward or westward remains an un¬ 
certainty.” j; Dr. Robertson, in reply to these 
and similar pretensions, asserts that “they 
(Tarshish and Ophir) were early supposed to 
be situated in some part of India, and the 
Jews were held to be one of the nations which 
traded with that country. But the opinion 
more general adopted is, that Solomon’s fleets, 
after passing the Straits of Babelmandel, held 
their course along the south - west coast of Africa 
as far as the kingdom of Sofala—a country cele¬ 
brated for its rich mines of gold and silver, 
from which it has been denominated the golden 
Sofala, by oriental writers, and abounding in all 
the other articles which composed the cargoes 
of the Jewish ships. This opinion, which the 
accurate researches of M. d’Anville render 
highly probable, seems now to be established 

* Isaiah zxiii. 7- t 2 Samuel viii. 14. 

J Asiatic Journal. 


with the utmost certainty by a late learned 
traveller, who, by his knowledge of the mon¬ 
soons in the Arabian Gulf, and his attention 
to the ancient mode of navigation, both in that 
sea and along the African coast, has not only 
accounted for the extraordinary length of time 
which the fleets of Solomon took in going 
and returning, but has shown, from circum¬ 
stances mentioned concerning the voyage, 
that it was not made to any place in India.* 
The Jews, then, we may conclude, have no 
title to be reckoned among the nations which 
carried on intercourse with India by sea ; and 
if, from deference to the statements of some 
respectable authors, their claims were to be 
admitted, we know with certainty that the 
commercial effort, which they made in the 
reign of Solomon, was merely a transient 
one, and that they quickly returned to 
their former seclusion from the rest of man¬ 
kind.” j- The name has very recently been 
traced to a city in Oman. Not fewer than 
sixteen countries have been claimed as sites 
for Ophir. Of all these conjectures, that 
which seems most founded on probability, 
and is corroborated by the authority of 
the Bible Cyclopaedia, J is that of Dr. Huet, 
Bishop of Avranches, who is of opinion that 
it was on the eastern coast of Africa, and 
termed by the Arabians Zanguebar ; that the 
name Ophir was more particularly given to 
the small country of Sofala on the same coast; 
that Solomon’s fleet went out from the Red 
Sea, and, doubling Cape Guardafui, coasted 
along Africa to Sofala, where was found in 
abundance whatever was brought to the 
Hebrew monarch by this voyage. After all 
this laboured and learned speculation, the 
precise situation of Ophir, it is to be appre¬ 
hended, must ever remain a mere conjecture. 

The admirable location of the Mediter¬ 
ranean Sea, watering countries the most fer¬ 
tile, the theatres of the earliest civilization 
stretching far inward, and all but land-bound, 
with a comparatively small outlet to the 
ocean, it was natural that those who dwelt 
upon its shores should be the first to hazard 
the perils of the deep, to master the navi¬ 
gation of their own waters, and ultimately 
command the commerce of three continents. 
Noting in their night adventures the star-lit 
paths which steered them clear of shoals, 
hidden rocks, and precipitous banks, they 
became as familiar with the heavenly orbs, as 
did the Chaldean shepherds, and thus nursed 
the kindred sciences, astronomy and naviga¬ 
tion, cultivating them to the highest state of 

* Bruce’s Travels in the East, b. it. chap. iv. 

t Robertson’s Historical Disquisition concerning An¬ 
cient India. 

% Vol. ii. p. 967, article Ophir. 




Chap. XIX.] 


IX INDIA AND THE EAST 


perfection possible, without the aid of modern 
instruments, preparing for those astounding 
discoveries of later times, the noblest achieve¬ 
ments of the human intellect. 

On the southern shores of that sea—washed 
on the east by the Red Sea, and connected 
with Asia by the narrow neck of land called 
the Isthmus of Suez, confined on each side 
by vast regions of barren sand, scarcely in¬ 
habited or habitable, and doomed to perpetual 
sterility and desolation—flourished Egypt, 
“ the land of marvels,” blessed with a luxu¬ 
riant soil and a mild climate, producing the 
necessaries and comforts of life in such profusion, 
that several modern as well as ancient historians 
have hazarded the bold assertion, that its in¬ 
habitants were independent of the productions 
of other countries, and, in fact, that among them 
it became a maxim of policy to repudiate all in¬ 
tercourse with foreigners, to hold all seafaring 
men in abhorrence, and to exclude all strangers 
from their ports. These statements are en¬ 
dorsed by the historian Dr. Robertson, and he 
draws from them another conclusion—that 
the alleged conquests of the Egyptian monarch 
Sesostris were inventions of the Egyptian 
priests, and from that source obtained by 
Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus. The doctor 
thus states his case “ Credulity and scep¬ 
ticism are two opposite extremes into which 
men are apt to run in examining the events 
which are said to have happened in the earlier 
ages of antiquity. Without incurring any 
suspicion of a propensity to the latter of 
these, I may be allowed to entertain doubts 
concerning the expedition of Sesostris into 
India, and his conquest of that country.—1. 
Few facts in ancient history seem to be better 
established than that of the early aversion of 
the Egyptians to a seafaring life. Even the 
power of despotism cannot at once change the 
ideas and manners of a nation, especially when 
they have been confirmed by long habit, and 
rendered sacred by the sanction of religion. 
That Sesostris, in the course of a few years, 
should have so entirely overcome the preju¬ 
dices of a superstitious people, as to be able 
to fit out four hundred ships of force in the 
Arabian Gulf, besides another fleet which he 
had in the Mediterranean, appears to be ex¬ 
tremely improbable. Armaments of such 
magnitude would require the utmost efforts 
of a great and long-established power.—2. It 
is remarkable that Herodotus, who inquired 
with the most persevering diligence into the 
history of Egypt, and who received all the 
information concerning it which the priests of 
Memphis, Heliopolis, and Thebes, could com¬ 
municate, although he relates the history of 
Sesostris at some length, does not mention his 
conquest of India. That tale, it is probable, 


8C.3 

was invented in the period between the age 
of Herodotus and that of Diodorus Siculus, 
from whom we receive a particular detail of 
the Indian expedition of Sesostris. His ac¬ 
count rests entirely upon the authority of the 
Egyptian priests; and Diodorus himself not 
only gives it as his general opinion ‘ that 
many things which they related flowed rather 
from a desire to promote the honour of their 
country than from attention to truth,’ but takes 
particular notice that the Egyptian priests, 
as well as the Greek writers, differ widely 
from each other in the accounts which they 
give of the actions of Sesostris.—3. Though 
Diodorus asserts that, in relating the history 
of Sesostris, he had studied to select what 
appeared to him most probable, and most 
agreeable to the monuments of that monarch 
still remaining in Egypt, he has admitted into 
his narrative many marvellous circumstances 
which render the whole extremely suspicious.” * 
He then proceeds to quote some of these sus¬ 
picious circumstances, in corroboration of his 
author’s veracity. 

The authority of such a man as the emi¬ 
nent historian of Charles V. and of America, 
will always be deservedly held in great re¬ 
spect in the republic of letters, and if he 
thought the subject of such gravity as to 
challenge his investigation, a further prose¬ 
cution of that inquiry may be tolerated. 
Indeed, the question is one of sufficient his¬ 
torical importance, for its affirmative solution 
will establish the earliest direct documentary 
evidence of the exercise of Western domina¬ 
tion in India, and identify a point of view 
from which the foreign relations, military as 
well as commercial, of ancient Egypt may be 
considered. 

Then, as to the first objection. Had the 
Egyptians such an aversion to seafaring life 
as to preclude them from all naval pursuits ? 
The Egyptian records and monuments state 
that thirty dynasties, some consecutive, many 
contemporaneous, possessed kingly power, 
extending from the reign of Menes, b. c. 
2717, to the conquest by Alexander the 
Great, b. c. 230. The name of Sesostris has 
been found in hieroglyphics in the Rami- 
seum of El Kurneh f, and in hieratic cha¬ 
racters in the royal Turin papyrus.]; What¬ 
ever prejudices may have existed amongst 
the Egyptians to the cultivation of commer¬ 
cial relations, they certainly did not prevail 
at every period of its history. The first men¬ 
tion in holy writ of Egypt is in connexion 
with foreign commerce,—and that in the 

* Robertson’s Researches, p. 5. 

t Lepsius, Benkmdler. 

j Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients, vol. ii. 

p. 262. 






364 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIX. 


products of India :—“ And, behold, a company 
of Isbmaelites came from Gilead with their 
camels bearing spicery, and balm, and myrrh, 
going to carry it down to Egypt.” * Here, 
upon opening the oldest history in the world, 
at a period 1729 years b. c., we find, as Dr. 
Vincent remarks, the Ishmaelites conducting 
a caravan loaded with spices of India, the 
balsam and myrrh of Hadramant, and in the 
regular course of their traffic proceeding to 
Egypt for a market; and notwithstanding 
the antiquity of the transaction, it has all the 
genuine features of a caravan crossing the 
desert at the present hour. Hence the infer¬ 
ence is obvious, that Egypt then had become 
what it is always recorded to have been—the 
centre of a most extensive commerce by land, 
and, through the agency of the camel, the 
“ ship of the desert,” as the Arab emphati¬ 
cally calls him. On some of the oldest 
monuments of Egypt are groups of foreigners, 
proving the then existing intercourse. On 
the rock inscriptions of Wadee-el-Magarah, 
in the peninsxda of Sinai, Num-Shufu, or 
Saphis the first, is represented slaying a 
foreigner. This monarch is the Cheops to 
whom Herodotus ascribes the building of the 
great pyramid, he ruled over 2300 years 
before the Christian era. It is in his reign 
we find the first reliable contemporary monu¬ 
ments of which the dates are satisfactorily 
ascertained. The probability is that the 
earliest is the northern pyramid of Aboo- 
Seer. These monuments are exceedingly 
numerous, and, thanks to the persevering 
ingenuity of our contemporaries, who have 
supplied a key to the reading of the hiero¬ 
glyphic inscriptions, afford us far better 
knowledge of the state of Egypt in those 
remote times, than is supplied by the scanty 
fragments of Manetho, Herodotus, and Dio¬ 
dorus Siculus. A tablet, which may be 
pronounced the most interesting of the 
Egyptian monuments, was discovered at 
Waldee Halfeh, in Nubia, near the second 
cataract, recording the triumph of Seser- 
tesen I. over foreign tribes, probably Ethio¬ 
pians. The Egyptians must at this early 
period (b. c. 2080) have extended their rule 
far into Nubia. Sesertesen, it is reasonable 
to suppose, is identical with the Sesostris of 
the Greeks. At or about this last-mentioned 
date Egypt became the prey of invaders, and 
the fifteenth dynasty was established. The 
Egyptians call them shepherds (Penu or 
Phoenicians). For several centuries—Afri- 
canus states 953 years—and through three 
dynasties, the shepherd kings ruled Egypt. 
Is it probable that the Phoenicians would 
abstain from commercial pursuits, and sur- 
* Genesis xxxvii. 25. 


render all the advantages derivable from 
naval enterprise ? On the tomb of Elethyas, 
in the reign of Aahmes, the Amos or Amosis 
of Manetho, b. o. 1525, is a long inscription 
of one Aahmes,. chief of the mariners, who 
served' several of the early kings of the eigh¬ 
teenth dynasty. The inscription mentions a 
war at sea or on the river, and particularizes 
the famous shepherd city Avaris, and relates 
that the king made in his sixth year an ex¬ 
pedition by water to Ethiopia, to impose 
tribute.* The immediate successors of the 
last-named monarch were as potent at least as 
he. The representations in the chambers of 
the great temple of Amen-ra-el-Karnak, at 
Thebes, show that Amenoph I. was success¬ 
ful in war against the Ethiopians, as well as 
against Asiatics. In the next reign the arms 
of Egypt were carried into Mesopotamia, and 
into Ethiopia also.f Tothmes III. pene¬ 
trated as far as Nineveh; and Amenoph, the 
third in descent from him, has left a distinct 
record of the extent of his dominions,—that 
they had Neherena—Mesopotamia—for their 
northern, and Keluee or Kelue—probably 
Coloe—as their southern boundary.^ That 
Syria, east of Europe, owned his sway, 
and a very great part of Ethiopia, is proved 
by monumental inscriptions : Eusebius, Ma¬ 
netho, and Syncellus (in his Catalogue of 
Egyptian kings), state that “ the Ethiopians, 
migrating from the river Indus, came and 
dwelt near Egypt.” The sculptures of a rock 
temple at Silsilis—Gebel-es-Silseleh—com¬ 
memorate a successful expedition against the 
negroes.§ The reign of Rameses II,, b.c. 
1200, was also signalized by foreign wars, 
furnishing an illustrious proof of the naval 
prowess of ancient Egypt. The most dis¬ 
tinguished of these was, perhaps, that which 
he swayed against “the Kaireiana of the Sea,” 
and “ the Tokaree,” probably the Cretans 
and Carians, who, anterior to the Homeric 
period, are reported to have been great mari¬ 
time powers, a fact strangely confirmed, and 
their decadence accounted for, by this chapter 
of Egyptian story. Over these combined 
fleets he achieved a signal victory. This 
sea fight forms the subject of one of the most 
remarkable battle scenes which adorn the 
great temple of Medeenat Haboo. || 

There is no fact of remote antiquity better 
substantiated than that Egypt, by her many 
victories by land and sea, had subjected 
several maritime peoples on the Mediterranean, 

* Champollion, Lettres , pp. 197, 198; and De Rongs, 
Tombeau d’Aahmes. 

f Lepsius, Denlcmaler. 

j Rosillini, Monumenti Storici, No. XLtl. 

§ Ibid., No. xliv. 

|| Ibid., No. cxxxi 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


■6h 


Chap. XIX.] 

and that all the countries lying on its eastern 
confines were reduced to obedience, or com¬ 
pelled to pay tribute to the Pharaohs. 

Psammeticus, who possessed the throne 
b.c. 664, was on the most friendly terms with 
the Phoenicians and Greeks, and, in addition, 
encouraged them to trade with his subjects. 
His son, Pharaoh Neko, who succeeded him 
b.c. 610, and who, at Megiddo, defeated and 
slew Josiah, the King of Judah, although 
engaged in wars of great magnitude, did not 
neglect the commercial interests of his coun- 
Iry. He either commenced the construction 
of a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, or 
attempted to remove the obstructions to navi¬ 
gation in one previously cut. He also main¬ 
tained a fleet in the Mediterranean and in 
the Red Sea, and to him, as Herodotus re¬ 
lates, is to be attributed the circumnavigation 
of Africa. Amases, the contemporary of 
Cyrus the Great and Croesus, b.c. 571, was 
enabled, by his powerful fleet, to subjugate 
Cyprus, and make it tributary. 

The old traditions concerning the rela¬ 
tions which existed between the Egyptians, 
Phoenicians, and Greeks, for a period of two 
thousand years, attributed to the inordinate 
vanity and reckless assumption of the histo¬ 
rians of the last-mentioned people, and classed 
with their myths, are verified by the contem¬ 
porary memorials, preserved by the granite 
tablets lately made legible, amid the ruin of 
dynasties, and the alternations of greatness 
and degradation. That the Egyptians had, 
centuries anterior to the Trojan war, es¬ 
tablished colonies, rests on stronger grounds 
than assertion; and from this, and similar 
instances elucidated by the labours of Bel- 
zoni, Champollion, Young, Wilkinson, and 
Layard, historians may learn that the tra¬ 
ditions of a people, however obscure they 
may be rendered by poetical embellishments, 
are not to be rejected as entirely unworthy of 
consideration A preserved tradition, like a 
presei’ved iossil fragment of an extinct animal, 
may, after the accumulation of a body of 
facts, lead the comparative historian, as well as 
the comparative anatomist, to the construction 
of a whole,—the verity of which may be fully 
established by the. subsequent discovery of a 
scientific explorer, or by some lucky accident. 

The settlement of Egyptian and Phoenician 
colonies in Greece may be now recognized as 
established facts. The period of these emi¬ 
grations extended from the middle of the 
nineteenth to the close of the seventeenth 
century before Christ, during the sway of the 
shepherd kings—Phoenicians. That Cadmus, 
a Phoenician, introduced letters into illiterate 
Greece—that Hellenic art presents evident 
traces of Egyptian influence—that the earliest 


specimens of Greek pottery are formed on 
Egyptian models, and rich in Egyptian de¬ 
signs—that ancient sages of Athens, Sparta, 
and other Hellenic localities sojourned in 
Egypt,—in the light of recent historical dis¬ 
coveries, cease to be looked upon as the 
dreams of early romancers. Were the an¬ 
cient Egyptians strangers to the sea, how 
possibly could they have colonized Greece ? 

There are several instances of later date 
which might be adduced in proof of the in¬ 
ference advocated, but enough has been said 
to show’,-—however jealous the Egyptians may 
occasionally have been of strangers,—from the 
earliest times, long anterior to the Ptolemies— 
to whom the rise of their naval power has 
been attributed — they cultivated foreign 
traffic, admitted strangers to the interior, 
waged distant wars, and maintained large 
naval armaments. 

The silence of Herodotus as to the con¬ 
quest of India by Sesostris, on which Robert¬ 
son so much relies, is not presumptive evi¬ 
dence of the falsity of the statement of 1 
Diodorus Siculus and others; nor does it 
follow, from the statement of Herodotus, that 
“ he had inquired with the most persevering 
diligence into the ancient history of Egypt, 
and had received all the information concern¬ 
ing it which the priests of Memphis, Helio¬ 
polis, and Thebes, could communicate.” 
What the Greek historian mentions by no 
means confirms the general and positive de¬ 
ductions drawn from it. Here follows the 
passage from which this quotation is made : 
—“ This relation,” referring to an absurd 
tale which he justly ridicules, “ I had from 
the priests of Vulcan at Memphis. But the 
Greeks tell many other foolish things, &c. 

I heard other things also at Memphis in con¬ 
versation with the priests of Vulcan, and on 
this very account I went also to Thebes, and 
to Heliopolis, in order to ascertain whether 
they would agree with the accounts given at 
Memphis ; for the Heliopolitans are esteemed 
the most learned in history of all the Egyp¬ 
tians.” The narration which he gives of the 
expedition of Sesostris, seems to imply that 
the priests recorded the conquests of India 
among his exploits. “ The priests said that 
he [Sesostris] was the first who, setting -out 
in ships of war from the Arabian Gulf, 
subdued these nations that dwell by the Red 
Sea, until, sailing onwards, he arrived at a 
sea which was not navigable on account of 
the shoals; and afterwards, when he came 
back to Egypt, according to the reports of 
the priests, he assembled a large army, and 
marched through the continent, subduing 
every nation that he fell in with, and where- 
ever he met with any who were valiant, and 





HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIX. 


S fifi 

who were very ardent in defence of their 
liberty, he erected columns in their terri¬ 
tories, with inscriptions, declaring his own 
name and country, and how he had conquered 
them by his power; but when he subdued 
any cities without fighting, and easily, he 
made inscriptions on the columns in the same 
way as among the nations that had proved 
themselves valiant. Thus doing he traversed 
the continent, until, having crossed from Asia 
into Europe, to these (the Scythians and Thra¬ 
cians) the Egyptian army appears to me to 
have reached and no farther, for in their 
country the columns appear to have been 
erected, but nowhere heyond them.” * The 
mention of the latter fact appears to be a justi¬ 
fication for his scepticism as to the more ex¬ 
tended conquests claimed for Sesostris. Fur¬ 
ther on he states, “ This king then was the only 
Egyptian who ruled over Ethiopia ”—a generic 
term, from Homer downwards, for all the 
swarthy nations of the East. Among the 
writers of Greece and Rome there is not a 
more painstaking historian than Diodorus 
Siculus : and though he wanted the higher 
qualities of an historian, his materials were 
selected with skill and assiduity; nor was he 
reckless as to the narratives which he ex¬ 
tracted from the Egyptian records ; he intro¬ 
duces his account of Sesostris in these words : 
—“But not only the Greek writers differ 
among themselves about this king, but like¬ 
wise the Egyptian priests and poets relate 
various and conflicting stories of him; our 
best efforts shall be directed to select what is 
truth-like, and conformable with the monu¬ 
ments still existing in Egypt.” j - 

The scepticism with which the achieve¬ 
ments of the great Egyptian conqueror, as 
well as his identity, have been treated, and, 
in addition, the fact that he is the first of the 
conquerors of India of whom the Western 
traditions and historical monuments make 
mention, justify the space devoted to him, 
though this identification of the man, and his 
relations with the East, do not furnish authen¬ 
tic materials for a page of Indian history. 

The early education which it is reported 
Sesostris received, somewhat similar to the 
training which Xenophon relates was adopted 
in the education of Cyrus, developed fully his 
mental and physical powers; and a large 
body of young men—his coevals, in fact, born 
on the same day—were bred up with him, 
and subjected to the same discipline. Daily 
converse and association strengthen mutual 
attachment, and the Egyptian prince was 
thus surrounded by a body-guard, active, brave, 

* Herodotus, b. n. chaps, cii., ciii. See Cary’s Trans¬ 
lation, Bohn’s Classical Library. 

f Diodorus Siculus, b. I. chap, xliii 


and devoted, willing to serve, and prepared 
to command. His first expedition, it is re¬ 
lated, was in command of an army sent by his 
father for the conquest of Arabia. He suc¬ 
ceeded, and subjected to the Egyptian yoke 
the fierce warriors of the desert, who never 
before owned a master. In this campaign he 
was accompanied by his youthful playmates. 
On his return, he was dispatched against the 
Lybians, whose territories lay on the western 
frontiers of Egypt. Though yet only a strip¬ 
ling, he subjugated the greatest part of that 
country. Coming to the crown on the de¬ 
mise of his father, and encouraged by his 
successes on the east as well as the west, his 
ambition was fired with the proud hope of 
conquering the world. As the basis of his 
success, he first devoted his attention to in¬ 
spire his people with feelings of love and 
admiration, and adopted means which, when 
employed by a youthful sovereign, never fail 
of realizing such results. He secured the 
allegiance of his subjects in his absence, and 
bound the soldiery firmly to his interests. 
The army he is said to have raised was com¬ 
mensurate with the magnitude of the under¬ 
taking. It amounted to six hundred thou¬ 
sand foot, twenty-four thousand horse, and 
twenty-seven thousand chariots of war; and 
to the respective commands he appointed 
those who had been educated with him, to 
the number of seventeen hundred. The mar¬ 
shaled hosts which Sardanapalus, Darius, 
Xerxes, and other ancient conquerors, brought 
into the field, reconcile to us the probability of 
this large force. Before Sesostris directed his 
course eastward, he marched against the 
Southern Ethiopians, whom he chastised. 
After that he dispatched a fleet of four 
hundred ships of war to the Red Sea, and 
subdued all the islands in it, and the maritime 
nations which extended from it as far as 
India. At the head of his land army he 
conquered all the nations of Asia—not alone 
those which Alexander the Great subse¬ 
quently reduced, but likewise those on which 
he never set foot, “ for he crossed the Ganges, 
and penetrated the whole of India, even to 
the ocean.” * Nine years, the historians 
state, were spent in this expedition. 

Whatever degree of credibility may be 
attachable to this narrative, it deserves a 
place in the history of ancient India. Many 
of the most questionable statements of 
the ancient historians have been unex¬ 
pectedly verified by the results of modern 
research. There is one illustration corrobo¬ 
rative of this, which may be pertinently in- 

* Kai yap tov Tdvyytj 7 rorctfiov 5u(3t], iccri rr)v 
'\vbiKr)v tirrjXOs nuaav uoa Qiccavov. — Diodokus Si¬ 
culus, b. 1. c. 43. 



Chap. XIX.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


367 


troduced here, which occurs in Herodotus’s 
description of India, apparently the most 
puerile and ludicrously imaginative of what 
were for centuries designated the fables of the 
"lying Greeks:”—‘‘There are other Indians 
living near the city of Caspatyras and the 
country of Pactyica [the city and territory of 
Cabul], situated to the north of the rest of 
the Indian nations, resembling the Bactrians, 
their neighbours, in their manner of life. 
These are the most warlike of all the Indians, 
and the people who go to procure the gold ; 
for the neighbourhood of this nation is a 
sandy desert, in which are ants, less in size 
than dogs, but larger than foxes, specimens 
of which are to be seen in the palace of the 
King of Persia, having been brought from 
that country. These creatures make them¬ 
selves habitations under ground, throwing up 
the sand like the ants in Greece, which they 
nearly resemble in appearance. The sand, 
however, consists of gold-dust. To procure 
this, the Indians make incursions into the 
desert, taking with them three camels,—a 
male one on each side, and a female in the 
centre, on which the rider sits, taking care to 
have one that recently foaled. When, in this 
manner, they come to the place where the 
ants are, the Indians fill their sacks with the 
sand, and ride back as fast as they can, the 
ants, as the Persians say, pursuing them by 
the scent, the female camel, eager to rejoin 
her young one, surpassing the others in speed 
and perseverance. It is thus, according to 
the Persians, that the Indians obtain the 
greater part of their gold; at the same time 
that the metal is also found in mines, though 
in less quantities.” * Heeren, in his Histori¬ 
cal Researches, strips the passage of its 
seeming absurdities, and places the cautious 
accuracy of the information, as well as the 
veracity of the father of history, in its proper 
light. His comments are :—“ Herodotus has 
so accurately marked the situation of these 
auriferous deserts, that it is impossible to be 
mistaken. The nation in whose neighbour¬ 
hood they are situated ‘ live near to Bactria 
and Pactyica, to the north of the other 
Indians,’ and consequently among the moun¬ 
tains of Thibet or Little Bokhara; and the 
desert in their vicinity can be no other than 
that of Gobis, which is bounded by the moun¬ 
tains of the above countries. There is no 
doubt that the account of the historian is 
applicable to this region.” We have already 
remarked that the lofty chain of mountains 
which limit the desert is rich in veins of gold; 
and not only the rivers which flow westward, 
from Great Bokhara, but the desert streams 
which run from the east, and lose themselves 
* Herodotus. 


in the sand. Besides, who knows not that 
the adjacent country, Thibet, abounds in gold 
sand? Nor can we be surprised if, at the 
present day, the rivers in question should be 
less abundant than formerly in that metal, as 
must always be the case, when it is not ob¬ 
tained by the process of mining, but washed 
down by a stream. As late, however, as the 
last century gold sand was imported from 
this country by the caravans travelling to 
Siberia; and under Peter the Great this gave 
occasion to abortive attempts to discover the 
supposed El Dorados, which were not with¬ 
out some beautiful results for the service of 
geography, though utterly unprofitable for 
the purposes of finance. That these were not 
ants, but a larger species of animal, having a 
skin, is apparent not only from the account of 
Herodotus, but from that of Megasthenes, in 
Arrian ( India , O.P., p. 179), who saw their 
skins, which he describes as being larger 
than those of foxes. The Count von Vel- 
theim, in his Sammelung einiger Aufsatze, 
vol. ii. p. 268, &c., has started the ingenious 
idea that the skins of the foxes ( Canis corsa, 
Linn.), found in great abundance in this country, 
were employed in the washing of gold, and 
which, as they burrow in the earth, may 
have given rise to the fable. Bold as this 
conjecture may appear, it deserves to be re¬ 
marked, as it is in perfect agreement with 
what we know of the natural history of the 
country. In corroboration of the view Heeren 
has taken, it may be added, that it is a com¬ 
mon practice in Savoy to use the skins of 
animals in washing gold sand. In the Jour¬ 
nal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal * Mr. 
Lane describes the simple mode pursued by 
the Birmese in collecting the gold-dust of the 
Kyenduen River, by fixing the horns of a 
peculiar species of wild cow in the small 
streams coming from the hills, to entangle 
the gold-dust in the velvet or hairy coat with 
which the young horns are enveloped. The 
horns, he was informed, were sold, with the 
gold-dust and sand adhering to them, for 
twelve or thirteen ticals apiece. It is by no 
means improbable that in the gold streams 
north of the Himalayas whole fleeces of some 
small animal were employed for the same 
purpose, and were occasionally sold entire. 
In a raid upon a people who thus collected 
their gold in all probability originated the 
well-known tale of Jason. The existence of 
Sesostris can be no longer questioned. His 
identity is now established by the many and 
various monuments within and without Egypt ; 
nor are the performance of the exploits attri¬ 
buted to him improbable, when the demon¬ 
strated power of the Egyptian monarchy was 
* Vol. i. p. 16. 






HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


8*8 

so great, and in an age when there existed no 
great empire from the waters of the Mediter¬ 
ranean and the Persian Gulf to the banks of 
the Indus—perhaps not even the Ganges. 

The Phoenicians are the next of the West¬ 
ern states whom we find recorded in commer¬ 
cial communication with India. Many causes 
have conspired to intercept the transmission 
of their history. Had it descended in its 
entirety to us, what a light would be reflected 
on the obscurity in which the first civilization 
that beamed on Europe is involved !—a civili¬ 
zation whose lustre, probably, would not be 
lost in the halo which encircled that of Greece. 
The fragments of their history—derived from 
Sanchpniato, some of the Hebrew writers, 
particularly Ezekiel, the Greek historians, 
Josephus, Eusebius, &c.—supply a general 
outline. 

Though precedence has been given in this 
chapter to Judaea and Egypt, it is not in con¬ 
sequence of the belief that their relations 
with India were of an earlier date, but we 
were influenced by the consideration that the 
historical records of those countries are of 
greater antiquity. Phoenicia was the medium 
of communication between them and the East. 
Through her agency the abundance of the 
East was scattei'ed over the West. The geo¬ 
graphical features of the country combined 
with the character of its inhabitants to make 
them a maritime people. Phoenicia was 
neither extensive nor fertile; it lay on the 
borders of a sea whose placid waters were 
studded with islands teeming with luxuriant 
produce, and wdiose northern shores were 
the seaboard of the productive districts of 
Asia Minor. Its political institutions were 
favourable to the nurture of an independent 
and enterprising spirit. It did not constitute 
one state, or at least one empire ; it was com¬ 
posed of a combination of several. It pre¬ 
sented a social aspect kindred to, if not iden¬ 
tical with, all Celtic nations—such as ancient 
Gaul presented, and was to be seen in the 
clans and septs of Scotland and Ireland, and 
in England, ere the Roman invader pressed 
its soil. The clans were all bound in one 
great confederation, acknowledging a common 
chief. Tyre, from its position as chief city, 
and the emporium of nations, stood at the 
head. It has been remarked by Dr. Robert¬ 
son, “ that both in their manners and their 
policy they resemble the great commercial 
states of modern times more than any people 
in the ancient world.” * Among them the 
art of navigation was earnestly cultivated ; in 
aaval dexterity and skill they were unrivalled ; 
and no nation of antiquity could lay claim to 

* Historical Disquisition concerning Ancient India , 

p. 7. 


[Chap. XIX. 

the same spirit of adventurous enterprise. 
With the tin which they brought from the far 
isles of the West—the British Isles—were in 
all probability manufactured the bosses and 
ornaments of the shields borne by the com¬ 
batants of Troy, as also the greaves they wore 
and the cups they quaffed, while by them 
were poured far westward the rich and 
voluptuous products of Indian climes. They 
not only monopolized the trade of nations 
near and remote; they likewise spread them¬ 
selves by the establishment of colonies, and 
of these some, particularly Carthage, rivalled 
the parent states in wealth, trade, and power. 
At a very early period Phoenician colonies were 
planted in the favoured isles of the Archi¬ 
pelago, from which they were subsequently 
ejected by the conquering Greeks. Tartessas, 
Gades, and Carteia, under their auspices, 
flourished in Southern Spain; Utica, Car¬ 
thage, and Adrumetum, on the northern 
coast of Africa; Panormus and Lylibeum, on 
the north-western coast of Sicily. The tra¬ 
ditions and early annalists of Ireland state 
that they colonized that island. They had 
settlements, in all probability, in the Persian 
Gulf, on the Islands of Tylos and Aradus. 
In truth, as navigators, they were the boldest, 
the most experienced, and the greatest dis¬ 
coverers of ancient times, and for many ages 
had no rivals. They not only were the trans¬ 
porters of the merchandize of other nations, 
they were also manufacturers. The glass of 
Sidon, the purple of Tyre, and the fine linen 
they exported, were their own inventions ; 
and they were deservedly celebrated for their 
extraordinary skill in working metals, in 
hewing timber and stone, and for their archi¬ 
tectural excellence. Their fame for taste, 
design, and execution, was so well estab¬ 
lished, that whatever was elegant, great, or 
pleasing in apparel, vessels, toys, was distin¬ 
guished by the epithet Sidonian. Many other 
important discoveries, among which the in¬ 
vention of letters holds the first rank, are at¬ 
tributed to them. Had we not before us the 
millions of colonists whose paternity is due 
to the British Isles, the vast colonial terri¬ 
tories thus peopled, the regions thus occupied, 
it would be questioned how little more than 
a slip of land, confined between Mount Leba¬ 
non and the sea, could pour forth such sup¬ 
plies of people without depopulation. From 
Eloth to Eziongeber, ports situated at the 
northern extremity of the Arabian Gulf, they 
undertook, in connection with the Jews, the 
voyage to Ophir, previously referred to, and 
extended their commerce from the Persian 
Gulf to the western peninsula of India and 
the Island of Ceylon. The most remarkable 
of their geographical discoveries was the cir- 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


369 


Ohap. XIX.] 

cumnavigation of Africa. The probability is 
mentioned of their having had a land com¬ 
munication with China, in consequence of 
their trade through Palmyra with Babylon, 
which opened to them an indirect path by way 
of Persia to Lesser Bokhara and Little Thibet. 
Dr. Robertson asserts that among the various 
branches of Phoenician commerce that with 
India may he regarded as one of the most 
lucrative.* The distance between the Arabian 
Gulf and Tyre rendered the carriage of goods 
by land both tedious and expensive. The 
Phoenicians, to obviate these impediments to 
trade, occupied Rhinocolura (now El Arish), the 
nearest of the ports in the Mediterranean to 
the Arabian Gulf. This port soon became 
the seat of Indian commerce. “ Merchandize 
was conveyed through Leuce-Come, a large 
mart in the territory of the Nabateans, and 
Petra, and thither and thence to other na¬ 
tions.”]- This was a shorter route than the 
one which Strabo states was afterwards pur¬ 
sued—namely, from India to Myus Hormus, 
and thence to Coptus (Kopt of the Thebais), 
situated on a canal of the Nile, and to Alex¬ 
andria. j: From Rhinocolura the transport by 
water to Tyre was short and safe. Great were 
the advantages which the Phoenicians secured 
by this route, the earliest of any of which there 
remains any authentic account, and superior to 
any known anterior to the discoveries of the 
Portuguese. 

Having thus summarily reviewed the frag¬ 
mentary notices which from the perceptible 
dawn of commercial enterprise, have descended 
to modern times—exciting a curiosity which 
presents a wide field for ingenious specula¬ 
tion, but yields nothing very satisfactory in an 
historical point of view—we now approach a 
period upon which more rays of historical 
light fall, yet still immerged in great, if not in 
impervious, obscurity. 

The Persians are the first people of whom 
it can be asserted, on testimony not entirely 
hypothetical, that they subjugated India. Of 
an early intercourse, it is observed by De 
Maries, abundant evidence is to be found in 
the language, traditions, and religious feel¬ 
ings of the two countries. Balk, the mother 
of cities, the Mecca of the Magians, the 
capital of Persia in her heroic days, and at a 
later period of a Greek kingdom, was in¬ 
debted to this intercourse for its advantageous 
commercial position and its immense wealth. 
Bactria was the key of Central India, the 
connecting link between the East and the 
West. It was the great rendezvous on 
the high road from the Caspian gates, not 

* Ancient India. 

f Strabo, vol. iii. p. 211. Bobu’s Edition. 

t Ibid. 

VOL. 1, 


only to the country of India, but to Sogdiana 
and Serica; and by this route a commercial 
intercourse was maintained between China 
and Europe. The produce of India was like¬ 
wise transported on the backs of camels from 
the banks of the Indus to the Oxus, and 
down this river they were conveyed to the 
Caspian Sea, and then distributed, partly by 
land carriage, and partly by navigable rivers, 
through the different countries lying between 
the Caspian and the Euxine. The magnitude 
of this trade may be deduced from the fact 
that Seleucus Nicator intended to unite the 
two seas by a canal. This project was frus¬ 
trated by the assassination of that prince.* 
Herodotus informs us that a great part of 
Asia was explored under the direction of 
Darius Hystaspes, who, being desirous to 
know in what part the Indus discharged it¬ 
self into the sea, dispatched vessels on a 
voyage of exploration, commanded by officers 
upon whose enterprise, intelligence, and 
veracity, he could rely, one of whom, Scylax 
of Caryanda, has transmitted his name to 
posterity. Setting forth from the city of 
Caspatyrus, and the country of the Pactyici,f 
they descended in an easterly direction to the 
sea; then, steering to the westward, they 
arrived, in the thirtieth month, at the port 
whence the King of Egypt had dispatched 
the Phoenicians to circumnavigate Lybia. 
After these had successfully completed their 
voyage, Darius resolved on the subjugation 
of the Indians.]; To this expedition he ap¬ 
pears to have been led by the glowing de¬ 
scription which Scylax gave of the luxuriant 
land he had reached, and its identity with 
the remote climes whose productions, mineral 
and vegetable, had been for centuries pre¬ 
viously conveyed to and through the terri¬ 
tories subject to his rule, and which had 
excited envy and cupidity. For its execution 
he was also well prepared. Though no de¬ 
scendant of the great Cyrus, he was a member 
of the same family, § and the third in suc¬ 
cession to him. He was one of the seven 
Persian chiefs who conspired against Smerdis, 
the Magian usurper, and through his life dis¬ 
played the boldness, ingenuity, and prompti¬ 
tude, with which he secured the throne. 
When Cyrus undertook his expedition against 
the Massagetse, Darius, then twenty years of 
age, was left in Persia, of which his father 
was satrap. Herodotus states that, the night 

* This passage is given in the Asiatic Journal, without 
acknowledgment, from Cerver’s India, vol. i., p. 145, 
who probably has derived it by translation from 
De Maries. 

f The modern Peh-keley. 

+ Herodotus, b. iv., chap. xliv. 

§ Ibid., b. i,, chap. ccix. 

3 B 




870 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XIX. 


after Cyrus had crossed the Araxes. he 
fancied in his sleep that he beheld himself with 
wings on his shoulders, one of which over¬ 
shadowed Asia, the other Europe. The king 
looked upon this dream as a mysterious warn¬ 
ing of a conspiracy against him and his crown; 
but the historian remarks, “ the divinity fore¬ 
shadowed to him that he w y ould himself be 
killed in the ensuing campaign, and that his 
power would descend to Darius.”* It was 
in his reign that those various and far- 
spreading nations, subdued by Cyrus and his 
son Cambyses, were consolidated,—so far, at 
least, as they ever were, for, in truth, those 
discordant elements were never brought into 
a state of cohesion. Asia, to the borders 
of Scythia and India, with the exception of 
Arabia, had bent to the yoke of his prede¬ 
cessors. Having fortified his position by the 
most powerful alliances, and divided his vast 
empire into twenty satrapies, a detailed ac¬ 
count of which, and their revenues, is sup¬ 
plied by Herodotus,-j- his ambition led him 
to foreign conquests. The successive rulers 
of Western Asia had long viewed with 
jealousy the congregation of independent 
and enterprising states from which the 
iEgean separated them; interests nearer 
home had curbed those ambitious designs 
which they had upon them; and probably 
the monarchs of Persia calculated with con¬ 
fidence on the immediate submission of the 
Greeks, at any moment they were at leisure 
to make a hostile demonstration against them. 
This conjecture is strengthened by the fact, 
that the first armament dispatched against 
Greece was comparatively inconsiderable, 
compared with the resources of Persia, and 
the displays made by Darius in other quarters. 
The revolt of the Babylonians prevented the 
prosecution of a war against Greece, although 
it had been commenced by an attack on 
Samos. Babylon fell b.c. 508. Crossing 
the Thracian Bosphorus, he overran Scythia, 
to the delta of the Danube, and penetrated 
far into the interior of Russia. He subdued 
Thrace and Pseonia, and received the sym¬ 
bols of submission, earth and water, from 
Amyntas, the King of Macedonia. He sent 
his lieutenant Otanes to reduce the maritime 
cities on the north coast of the iEgean. The 
Hellespont and the Bosphorus, Byzantium, 
Chalcedon, and the Islands of Imbros and 
Hemnos, fell into his hands. The disastrous re¬ 
sults of his war against Greece are too familiar 
for more than allusion, and nearly so his re¬ 
pression of the Egyptian revolt. The incor¬ 
poration in his empire of the many countries 
which stretched south-east from the Caspian 

* Herodotus, b. i., chap. ccx. 

t Ibid, b. hi., chap, xc, &c. 


to the river Oxus, inspired him with the 
ambition of also attaching some, if not all, of 
the Indian territories. It is probable that 
this was the real motive which suggested the 
voyage of Scylax towards the upper part of 
the navigable course of the river Indus, and 
the sailing down its streamlet he should reach 
the ocean. The glowing description which it 
has been said that officer gave of its popula¬ 
tion, luxuriant productions, and high state 
of cultivation, fired his impatience. To troops 
tempered by so many campaigns, and 
always victorious on the eastern continent, 
the pacific dwellers beyond the Indus could 
offer but a feeble opposition; and though 
Dr. Robertson opines, “ that his conquests in 
India seem not to have extended beyond the 
district watered by the Indus,” such a 
view conflicts with the evidence of Hero¬ 
dotus.* “ The population of India is by far 
the most numerous of all the nations we know. 
Their tribute (to Darius) amounted to more 
than that of any other nation or, as Larcher 
translates it, “ they paid as many taxes as all 
the rest put together.”f The description of 
the Persian satrapies has been subjected by 
modern writers to critical investigation, the 
result of which has been to verify the general 
authenticity, and consequently the industry 
and fidelity, of the historian. It is worthy of 
remark, as Major Rennel appropriately ob¬ 
serves, that this tribute was paid in gold, 
whereas that of the other satrapies was paid 
in silver. Much light has been thrown on 
this circumstance, he adds, by the intelligence 
furnished by the Ayin Ackbaree —namely, 
that the eastern branches of the Indus, as 
well as some other streams that descend from 
the northern mountains, yield gold.j; Pri- 
deaux conjectures, that when Scylax returned 
by the Straits of Babelmandel and the Red 
Sea, he landed where Suez now stands. He 
dates the commencement of the voyage, 
b.c. 509, in the thirteenth year of the reign 
of Darius. It appears that the three suc¬ 
ceeding years were devoted to the acquisition 
of India, as this interval is not accounted 
for by any other transactions of his reign. 
The short extract above quoted from Hero¬ 
dotus comprises all that survives of the his¬ 
tory of this campaign. On his return from 
the East he renewed his designs upon Greece. 
From this incident may be dated the com¬ 
mencements of those collisions between the 
armies of Persia and Greece, the most bril¬ 
liant episode in the annals of the latter, 
the provocation of an aggressive war with 

* Herodotus, b. ill., chap. xciv. 

f “ 11s payoient autant d’impots que tous les autrc'i 
ensemble.” 

X Memoir of a Map of Hindostan, p. 25. 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


871 


Chap. XX.} 


Persia, which eventuated, after the lapse of 
nearly two centuries, in the subjugation of 
the mighty empire founded by the great 
Cyrus, partially consolidated by Darius him¬ 
self,—led the all-conquering hero of Macedon 
beyond the Indus, and first familiarised the 
rich domains of the famed Asiatic Peninsula 
to the nations of the Western continent. 


From this period onward the historian of 
India is released from much of the difficulties 
by which he was beset in his researches into 
more primitive times, and treads a path which, 
though overgrown by rank weeds, which vege¬ 
tate most profusely on land once cultivated, 
yet preserves enough of its characteristics 
to conduct the traveller to his destination. 


CHAPTER XX. 

COMMERCE ( Continued )COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE BETWEEN INDIA AND THE WESTERN 
NATIONS FROM THE INVASION OF ALEXANDER TO THE SETTLEMENT OF THE BRITISH. 


A recent writer on India has very properly 
remarked :—“All that Europe knew of India 
prior to the expedition of the Macedonian 
monarch was through its gold, its pearls, its 
spices, and its rich cloths. But the length of 
time occupied in the voyage, the circuitous 
route by which these goods were conveyed, 
and the many hands through which they 
passed, rendered it highly improbable that 
any but the most wild and fanciful pictures of 
the East ever reached those who consumed 
the products brought from those lands. It was 
reserved for Alexander the Great (b.c. 331) 
to achieve, amongst other things, the opening 
of this hidden region, although he himself 
visited but its confines on the west. Unlike 
the progress of those northern conquerors who 
came after him, carrying fire and sword and 
scattering death and ruin about their footsteps, 
the Macedonian carried with him the soften¬ 
ing influence of civilization.” Alexander, 
however, knew little of “the gorgeous East;” 
he paused on the threshold of the new world 
to which his conquering arms were carried. 
The Hyphasis was a rubicon which he did 
not pass, at all events in the pomp and power 
of war, but marched thence towards the south¬ 
west, between the Indus and the desert, leav¬ 
ing garrisons and forming alliances as he 
passed along. The adherents of the conqueror, 
who remained behind with his garrisons, 
studied the character of the country, and the 
manners and habits of the people, and Europe 
became better acquainted with the condition 
of India than would now be supposed possible 
at that period, had we not the writings of 
Ptolemy, Arrian, Aristobulus, and others, to 
attest it. The early Greek representations of 
India agree wonderfully with all we know of 
it, and with what our knowledge of its anti¬ 
quities shows us must then have been its con¬ 
dition. In Robertson’s Disquisition concern¬ 
ing Ancient India, and in Gillie’s History of 


the World, the fullest notices extant of the 
conquest of India by Alexander, and the con¬ 
duct of his successors in India, will be found. 
The authorities chiefly relied on are Strabo 
and Arrian, but they supply very imperfect 
information as to the commercial intercourse 
between the Indians and the Greeks. 

The Bactrians, both before they acquired 
independence, and after the death of the 
great Macedonian afforded them that boon 
through the dismemberment of the empire, 
carried on commercial intercourse with India. 
Mill says :—“ Among the kingdoms formed 
out of the vast empire of Alexander was Bac- 
tria. This district was part of the great 
range of country on the eastern side of Media 
and Persia, extending from the Lake Aral to 
the mouths of the Indus, which the power of 
the Persian monarclis had added to their ex¬ 
tensive dominions.” This statement Mill in¬ 
troduces to account for the extensive power 
wielded by the Bactrians, and their influence 
on the civilization of Hindoostan. Professor 
Wilson corrects the statements of Mill, by 
observing that the political power of Bactria 
after its independence may have extended 
over this space, but that the Bactrian province 
of Persia lay entirely to the north of the 
Paropamisan Mountains, and had Sogdiana 
and the Scythians between it and the Aral 
Lake. Much additional light has been thrown 
upon the history of Bactria and the adjacent 
provinces of the Affghan country, by the 
recent discovery of large quantities of coins, 
bearing the effigies and names of Greek and 
barbaric kings. They have been found in 
the tract between Balk and the Punjaub, 
and especially about Peshawur and Cabul, 
which were, no doubt, included in the domi¬ 
nions of the princes of Bactria, or of those 
principalities which were established in the 
direction of India by the Greeks. As most 
of these coins bear on one face an inscription 






372 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XX. 


which has been ascertained to he in a form of 
Prakrit, a derivative from Sanscrit, they 
prove that the Bactrians must have been an 
Indian people.* The commerce carried on 
by this people was by no means in pro¬ 
portion to the extensive power which, after 
the death of the Macedonian emperor, they 
acquired. 

The early death of Alexander prevented 
his maturing any plan for either founding an 
Indian empire or establishing an Indian com¬ 
merce ; and the Bactrian empire which arose, 
while itself profiting, did not extend the inter¬ 
course of East and West. For three hundred 
years the trade with India was conducted by 
the Egyptians and Arabs by way of the Red 
Sea, the Nile, and the Mediterranean, through 
the ports of Berenice, Coptos, and Alexandria. 
Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, who had been a 
prominent commander in the Indian expedi¬ 
tion of Alexander, having obtained Egypt in 
the division of the Macedonian empire which 
followed the conqueror’s decease, naturally 
turned his attention to the scenes of his 
former exploits, and contributed to the com¬ 
mercial enterprise which then marked the 
proceedings of the Egyptians and Arabs. 
Egypt became the grand path of oriental 
commerce. There were, however, two other 
routes by which a small portion of the traffic 
with the East was carried on. One of these 
lay through Persia and the upper part of 
Arabia to the Syrian cities, a desert and diffi¬ 
cult route, but one of great antiquity. The 
only halting-place on this dreary road was 
the famed city of Tadmor, or Palmyra, so- 
called from the abundance of palm-trees which 
flourished around its walls. This regal city- 
owed its prosperity to the commerce which 
passed through it, and which, in the course 
of time, raised the state to a degree of import¬ 
ance and power that exposed it to the jealousy 
of imperial Rome. A war ensued, in which 
its brave and noble -minded queen, Zenobia, was 
captured, her city destroyed, and with it the 
overland traffic of the desert, which had ex¬ 
isted since the days of Abraham. The second 
route was by way of the Indus upwards, 
across the rocky passes of the Hindoo Cush, 
and so on to the river Oxus and the Caspian 
Sea, whence the merchandize was conveyed 
by other land and water conveyance to the 
cities of the north and north-west. Even in 
the present day we find this a route of some 
importance, serving as the means of carrying 

* See the descriptions and observations of Masson and 
Prinsep in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal; 
of Jacquet, in the Journal Asiatique ; Eaoul Pochette, in 
the Journal des Savans; also Richter, on the Topes {die 
Stupe), and Lassen, Zur Geschichte der Griechischen und 
IndosJcytischen Konige in Badrien, Kabul, und Indien, 


on a trade between India, Persia, and Russia, 
which is of more real value to the latter 
country than is perhaps generally known in 
Europe. The richest silks, the finest muslins, 
the most costly shawls, the rarest drugs and 
spices, are bought up by Russian dealers, and 
transported by this tedious route to the cities 
of the great czar. With the Palmyra route 
the carrying-trade of Egypt with the East 
suffered equally from the ravages and con¬ 
quests of the Roman emperors, though not so 
permanently.* 

During the reign of the Emperor Claudius 
some attention was paid to the advantages 
which might be derived from an Eastern 
commerce. This appears, however, to have 
been the result of Eastern more than of 
Western enterprise. An embassy was sent 
from Ceylon which was purely of a commer¬ 
cial character. The great empire of China 
was penetrated by the fame of the Roman 
name, and probably in consequence of the 
representations made by the Ceylon ambas¬ 
sador at a former period, a mission to the 
ruler of the celestial empire was sent from 
Rome in the reign of the Antonines. 

When the decline of the Roman empire 
removed the vigorous surveillance held by its 
despots over their Eastern provinces, the 
trade between India and Europe, which had 
suffered much from Roman oppression, began 
to revive. The removal of the seat of empire 
from Rome to Constantinople extended greatly 
the intercourse between East and West. The 
Byzantines were, however, rivalled by the 
Persians when the latter shook off the Parthian 
yoke. 

The conquests of the enterprising Saracens 
gave an immense stimulus to Eastern com¬ 
merce. They established commercial navies 
on the Persian Gulf; and the city of Bus- 
sorah, founded by the Caliph Omar, at the 
junction of the Tigris and Euphrates, soon 
became a place of trade hardly inferior to 
Alexandria. The Egyptian trade through the 
Red Sea was at the same time revived; and 
the hardy Arabs, not contented with following 
in the track of their predecessors, pushed for¬ 
ward their discoveries until they had accu¬ 
rately explored the greater part of the coast¬ 
line of South-eastern Asia. It is all but 
demonstrated that they obtained a knowledge 
of the mariner’s compass from the Chinese, 
and that through them this vast improvement 
in the art of navigation was made known to 
Europe. The Crusaders were non-trading 
enthusiasts; yet the capture of the two 
flourishing cities of Antioch and Tyre 
pointed out to them the pleasures of oriental 

* A History of the Bise and Frogress of the British 
Indian Possessions. 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


373 


Chap. XX.] 

luxury and the advantages of oriental com¬ 
merce.* 

The decline of the Saracenic power gave 
scope to the rising commonwealths of Italy. 
The Genoese and Venetians prosecuted trade 
with Central Asia byway of the Mediterranean 
and Black Sea, and the subjects of those states 
maintained with Persia an important oriental 
commerce. These nations were not, however, 
able to effect any direct trade with India. 

The rise of the Portuguese as a commercial 
nation opened up a new medium of commer¬ 
cial intercourse with India. Bartholomew 
Diaz, in 1486, rounded the southern point of 
Africa, which he named “ the Cape of Storms.” 
John II., King of Portugal, perceiving the 
healing of the discovery of a passage round 
the great African promontory into the Indian 
Ocean, gave it the happy title of “the Cape 
of Good Hope.” Manuel, the successor of 
John, followed up the discovery of Diaz, and 
sent out an exploring expedition in July, 
1497. On the 22nd of May, 1498, the navi¬ 
gator who commanded this enterprise, Vasco 
da Gama, reached Calicut, on the coast of 
Malabar. He remained some time, and 
freighted his ship with the articles of Indian 
produce attainable on that coast, and adapted 
to European taste, or which, in the speculative 
enterprise of Da Gama, was supposed to be 
so. He escaped various perils with which his 
intercourse with the natives was beset,—more 
especially through the jealousy of the monarch, 
—and returned in safety to the Tagus, j - 

The hopes and fears of all Europe were 
roused by this brilliant discovery. It was at 
once seen that the Venetians, and their 
agents, the Mohammedans and Turks, must 
lose their lucrative monopoly of Indian com¬ 
merce ; and they entered into a treaty with 
the Sultan of Egypt to prevent the establish¬ 
ment of Portuguese settlements in the Eastern 
seas. Timber was supplied to him from the 
forests of Dalmatia to equip a fleet in the Red 
Sea, where twelve ships of war were soon 
built, and manned by a gallant body of Mame¬ 
lukes, under the command of experienced 
officers. The Portuguese encountered their 
new enemies with undaunted courage; and 
after some conflicts they entirely ruined the 
Egyptian squadron, and remained masters of 
the Indian Ocean. 

After the overthrow of the dynasty of the 
Mameluke sultans by the Turks, the Venetians 
easily induced the conquerors of Egypt to 
join them in a new league for the overthrow 
of the Portuguese power in India. But the 
Turks had not the skill and enterprise neces¬ 
sary for undertaking the perilous navigation 

* Ancient and Modern India. 

t Camoens. 


of the Red Sea, and soon after, the power of 
Venice was irretrievably ruined by the fatal 
league of Cambray. The Indian trade was 
consequently transferred from the Mediterra¬ 
nean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, and Lisbon 
for a time was in possession of that commerce 
which had been a source of wealth and glory 
to Venice.* 

The Portuguese government conducted its 
plans for commanding a commerce with the 
East vid the Cape of Good Hope with spirit 
and success. A fleet of thirteen sail, carrying 
a thousand soldiers, independent of the comple¬ 
ment which served as marines, was dispatched 
under an officer named Pedro Alvarez de 
Cabral. On his arrival at Calicut, partly by 
the presence of this imposing force, and partly 
by his tact in negotiation, he made a treaty 
of commerce with the zamorin or zamoree, as 
the prince of the country stretching along the 
Malabar coast was then called, and the adven¬ 
turous Portuguese became regularly installed 
as factors in Calicut. The mercantile settlers, 
resting on the treaty, felt secure; but the 
prince, instigated by the Moormen, laid a 
scheme for their destruction so furtively, and 
carried it out so completely, that a general 
massacre of the Portuguese merchants and their 
servants, was the result. Thus the character 
of the natives two centuries and a half ago 
was developed to Europeans as it was in 1857. 
The same faculty of secret combination, the 
same hatred to strangers, and the same expert¬ 
ness in secretively organizing murderous con¬ 
spiracy against those who trusted them, was 
displayed. 

Cabral was not a man to allow treachery 
and cruelty either to go unpunished or to 
defeat his projects. He attacked the Moormen 
fleet in the harbour of Calicut, burnt, sunk, or 
captured the ships, and laid the town itself 
in ruins. The result was that the perfidious 
chief sued for terms, and obtained them at the 
expense of far more important concessions 
than had been requested of him for purposes 
of commerce and peace. 

Awed by the promptitude and energy of 
Cabral, the chiefs of the neighbouring terri¬ 
tories sought amicable relations, and com¬ 
mercial treaties were formed highly beneficial, 
to the Portuguese, who thus found means of 
obtaining from the interior its products in 
exchange for foreign goods, or the precious 
metals. Cabral returned home in triumph, 
his fleet freighted with Indian riches; and his 
fame soon spread, not only through the Ibe¬ 
rian peninsula, but over all Western and 
Southern Europe. After the return of Cabral 
matters were not managed by the Portuguese 
with skill or fidelity, and the zamoree ( zamo - 
* Taylor and M'Kenna. 



374 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XX. 


rin) of Calicut endeavoured to compel the 
native princes in his neighbourhood to break 
off their alliances with the intruders. These 
attempts issued in sanguinary struggles, in 
which, however, the native princes and their 
foreign ally were the victors. 

The Portuguese monarch, stimulated by 
the accounts of Vasco da Gama, fitted out a 
new and more powerful fleet, adapted alike 
for commerce and for war. Albuquerque had 
the interests of Portugal now committed to 
him, and he proved himself capable of the high 
task. His difficulties were more numerous 
than those which obstructed his predecessors, 
and his commission was one which, whatever 
might have been his own opinion of it, ensured 
the ultimate defeat of Portuguese power and 
enterprise in the East. The nature of his 
onerous duties, and the way in which the de¬ 
signs of Portugal were encountered, are thus 
summed up by Dr. Taylor :—“ The papal bull, 
by which all the East was bestowed on the 
Portuguese, began now to produce its injurious 
effects. The Portuguese claimed, as matter 
of right, the submission of the native princes, 
while they were utterly unable to conceive 
how an old prelate residing in Rome, could 
acquire a claim to deprive them of the au¬ 
thority and independence which they had 
inherited from their ancestors. Almost every 
port now opposed the entrance of the Por¬ 
tuguese, and the cargo of almost every ship 
they loaded was purchased with blood. It 
was at this time that Albuquerque was placed 
at the head of the Portuguese in India, and 
entered on the career of victory which has 
immortalized his name. One of his first 
visits was to the Island of Ormuz, an island 
barren by nature, but which commerce soon 
raised to a temporary celebrity, such as has 
rarely been rivalled. The king of the island 
prepared for defence, and assembled an army, 
said to exceed thirty thousand men; yet these 
were totally defeated, by the discipline and 
skill of less than five hundred Europeans; 
and the king of Ormuz submitted to vassalage. 
The foundation of the Portuguese empire 
in the East may be said to date from the 
occupation of Goa by Albuquerque. He 
fortified it in the best manner, so as to render 
it impregnable against any attacks of the 
Hindoos or Mohammedans; and having thus 
discovered the great advantage to be derived 
from the occupation of cities and harbours, 
he began to direct his whole course of policy 
to territorial acquisitions. One of his first 
conquests was Malacca. He afterwards at¬ 
tempted to storm Aden, but was repulsed. 
From Malacca to the Island of Ormuz the 
coast-line of India was studded with forts 
and commercial marts, occupied by Portu¬ 


guese garrisons, or dependant on their power. 
The financial talents of the governor were 
even greater than his military prowess ; he 
raised the revenue by lowering the rate of 
duties, trade naturally flowing towards those 
places where it was least exposed to taxation 
and vexatious interference. After a brilliant 
regency of five years, he died at the entrance 
of the harbour of Goa, on his return from the 
Island of Ormuz, which he had rescued from 
the dangers to which it was exposed by a 
sudden attack of the Persians.” During the 
administration of Albuquerque, ships were 
dispatched from the settlements on the Indian 
coasts to China, and a trade was opened up 
with that country. The Indo-Portuguese 
derived from this indomitable and wise man, 
not only lessons of war and administration, 
but principles of commerce and political 
economy, which unhappily they did not long 
retain, and which the parent country never 
espoused. 

The object in this chapter is not to mark 
the political or social influence of the Por¬ 
tuguese upon their Indian possessions, but to 
trace the history of European commerce with 
these realms; it is therefore unnecessary to 
point out the ebb and flow of the power of 
Portugal along the coasts of India, and in 
their neighbouring settlements. Whatever 
was corrupt and unprincipled in the govern¬ 
ment of the eastern princes was adopted by 
the new comers, and other forms of oppression 
and exaction were introduced. The seas 
were scoured by pirates: Arabs, Moormen, 
Malays, Indians, and other races, plundered 
by sea and shore, and among the boldest and 
bloodiest of these buccaneers were Portu¬ 
guese, men who had been sent out in the 
service of their sovereign, but who, yielding 
to the avarice and unpatriotic selfishness 
.which so generally characterized their com¬ 
mercial fellow countrymen, forsookthe honour¬ 
able posts assigned to them, and became the 
most desperate sea robbers. The return of 
Vasco da Gama for a short time to the 
government of Portuguese-India, and the 
influence of men who endeavoured to follow 
in the footsteps of him and of Albuquerque, 
redeemed, pro tempore, the honour of Por¬ 
tugal, and prevented her interests from ut¬ 
terly perishing in the faithlessness and folly 
of her sons; but in spite of the good examples 
thus occasionally set them, and the same com¬ 
mercial policy in which they had at the be¬ 
ginning of their Indian enterprise been in¬ 
structed, they sacrificed empire and honour 
to bigotry, oppression, and pelf. Vessels 
sent out for commercial purposes by the go¬ 
vernment were armed for war by the governors 
of the different settlements, who struggled 




375 


Chap. XX.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


witn one another for supremacy, amidst fierce 
and sai quinary conflicts, and the sacrifice 
of national property. An intense eagerness 
for proselytism was strangely mingled with 
this piratical spirit. Strenuous efforts were 
made to convert the natives, many of which 
were honourable to those who made them, 
but generally they were barbarous, and 
abhorrent to Christian feeling. The esta¬ 
blishment of the Inquisition at Goa is one of 
the darkest passages in human story. Pro¬ 
bably never, anywhere, had the ingenuity 
and pertinacity of cruelty been so united 
with forms of sanctity and professions of be¬ 
nevolence. Francis Xavier, by whom the 
inquisition was established at Goa, although 
he co-operated with the government, and 
promoted its authority by the religious in¬ 
fluence he acquired, did much personally to 
check the corruption and tyranny of those to 
whom the administration of affairs was com¬ 
mitted, and often, with a high hand, redressed 
the wrongs of the natives. Many of the atro¬ 
cities at Goa, alleged to have been perpe¬ 
trated with the connivance of Xavier, were 
inflicted in spite of his indignant remon¬ 
strances, and even his denunciations and 
menaces. Representations to the government 
at Lisbon were also made by him against the 
civil turpitude which so soon indicated the 
ultimate ruin of Porhiguese interests in the 
East. The whole career of this people in 
their oriental exploits, with the noble excep¬ 
tions referred to, exemplified the truth of the 
scripture principle, “ Righteousness exalteth 
a nation, but sin is the ruin of any people.” 
The commerce of the Portuguese was 
literally destroyed by their religion. The 
horrible butcheries of the Inquisition of Goa 
infuriated the people of India, and ren¬ 
dered the name of the Portuguese infamous 
throughout the world. A modern writer 
thus describes in brief the general effect pro¬ 
duced, and the final catastrophe, so far as 
Portuguese commerce was concerned, to which 
it led :—“ As evil has ever been known to 
work out good, so these persecutions and re¬ 
ligious slaughters led in the end to favourable 
results. A cry for vengeance arose from the 
priestly shambles of the Inquisition. It went 
forth over that devoted land from shore to 
shore, and found an echo in many a heart,— 
sympathy in many a home. Insurrections, 
revolts, massacres, and burnings, were to be 
met with far and near. Armed with another 
papal bull, the Portuguese Christians deluged 
the country with blood ; but in vain. Even 
the native converts joined the standard of the 
Hindoo and the Moslem, whose practice, if 
not their creed, was more merciful and tole¬ 
rant than that of the civilized crusaders from 


the Western world. And now another people 
appeared on the bloody stage ; a race of per¬ 
severing, industrious merchants, who, by their 
cautious and humane policy, founded an em¬ 
pire in the East more durable, because more 
merciful, more kindly, than that of the in¬ 
tolerant Portuguese.” The people here re¬ 
ferred to as supplanting the Portuguese were 
the Dutch. The encomium passed upon them 
must be taken with abatement; their pursuit 
of gain was as godless as that of most other 
nations, but it is to their credit that they 
refrained from coercion as an instrument of 
conversion, except under certain tame and 
modified forms, which, although inconsistent 
with Christianity, are not so revolting to 
human nature as were the practices of the 
Portuguese. It may be doubted whether at 
any time during the successes of the Dutch 
they were as prosperous as the Portuguese 
were under some of their leaders, whose 
careers have been referred to. There was 
probably as much justice and success in the 
administrations of Vasco da Gama and his 
great successor, as ever marked European 
enterprise in India, whether commercial or 
military. The poet hardly allowed fancy 
to portray too fair a picture when he sung— 

“ O’er Indus’ banks, o’er Ganges’ smiling vales, 

No more the hind his plunder’d field bewails; 

O’er every field, O Peace, thy blossoms glow, 

The golden blossoms of thy olive bough; 

Firm based on wisdom’s laws great Castro crowns. 
And the wide East the Lusian empire owns.” 

The Dutch, however, inaugurated their first 
essay of Indian commerce well, and if not so 
gloriously as the Portuguese, yet the odium 
which the religious persecutions, fraud, and 
cruelty of the latter brought them, enabled 
the peaceful and cautious proceedings of the 
former to strike the minds of the natives of 
India in strong contrast. The writer last 
quoted, generally accurate and conscientious, 
thus presents the entrance of the new Euro¬ 
pean adventurers upon the theatre of their 
commercial enterprise:—“The Dutch (a.d. 
1509), having gathered some information re¬ 
specting the trade and possessions of the 
Portuguese in India, and lured by the pro¬ 
spect of a share of those costly spoils, fitted 
out a fleet of merchantmen under the direc¬ 
tion of an East India company, and dispatched 
it laden with goods and merchandize for barter, 
and well armed. The advent of this first 
armament from Holland was the dawn of 
salvation to India ; and from that time may 
be dated the decline and ruin of the Indo- 
Portuguese empire. It was in vain that the 
governor of Goa, alarmed by the appearance 
of these formidable arrivals in the Eastern 
waters, endeavoured to excite the natives of 





376 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XX. 


India against the Dutch. He soon found 
that so far from the new-comers being re¬ 
garded with fear or jealousy, they were 
looked upon with favourable eyes by the 
princes who ruled upon the Malabar and 
Coromandel coasts, and that these people 
began to count upon the assistance of the 
Hollanders, as a foil to the oppressions of 
the Portuguese. Equally in vain was it to 
endeavour to repel the intruders by force 
of arms; they would gladly have found a 
pretext for a quarrel, but the wary policy of 
the Dutch disappointed them in this, and the 
latter were, moreover, too well armed to be 
easily taken by surprise.” This statement as 
to the decline of the Portuguese is correct. 
The manners of the Dutch were so much 
more acceptable to the people, that the hatred 
of Portuguese rule was increased, if possible, 
beyond that which their atrocities had stimu¬ 
lated. Revolt everywhere, continental and 
insular, left them no hope; even the weak 
Ceylonese triumphed in expelling the detested 
invaders, the native converts and half-castes 
joining the people against the tyrants. An 
order from Madrid, where the government of 
Portugal was then chiefly conducted, directed 
that every public office in India should be 
sold, and the money sent home, thus destroy¬ 
ing all hope of retrieving disasters, or regain¬ 
ing lost territory. Terrific storms wrecked 
their fleets—convoys and merchantmen being 
lost together. It seemed as if heaven fought 
against Portugal; her commerce, power, and 
renown perished. 

The attempts of the Dutch to open up an 
Indian commerce were systematized, and the 
enterprises were well organized and well con¬ 
ducted. Although the English soon followed 
the Dutch, the latter were far more successful; 
for James I.—with that alacrity to betray 
their country, which the false-hearted Stuarts 
ever exhibited—was anxious to sacrifice this 
commerce to please Philip of Spain. The 
Dutch were free; they had defied and humbled 
Philip, and were prepared to pluck from his 
grasp the oriental diadem. They won the 
spice trade of Ceylon, and utterly broke up 
the profitable trade with China which the 
Portuguese had in their most flourishing 
period established. It is possible that the 
union of the crowns of Spain and Portugal 
was the chief cause of the declension of Por¬ 
tuguese commerce; for when, in 1640, the 
Portuguese threw off the Spanish connection, 
there was a renewal of energy in the forts and 
factories which they had continued to hold 
in India, and so much of an improved spirit 
was indicated, that the prospects of Portuguese 
oriental commerce revived. The Dutch, how- I 
ever, had gained too firm a footing, and could I 


only be supplanted by a far more powerful 
rival than Spain or Portugal, or both united, 
were ever likely to prove. The Portuguese 
still retain a few settlements, — Goa, Diu 
Timor, and Macao, at the mouth of the 
Canton river, but their trade is insignifi¬ 
cant. 

Previous to the reign of Elizabeth England 
received from the Venetians such Indian com¬ 
modities as she consumed. Dr. Cooke Taylor, 
and other waiters, represent this trade as un¬ 
profitable to England. But no nation will 
continue to carry on gainless commerce : the 
Venetians took such things in return as it 
suited England to export, and the commo¬ 
dities she received were worth to her the 
exchanges made in those transactions. Still 
it was a barter which did not call out the 
energy of so enterprising a people, and in no 
sensible manner tended to augment their 
wealth. In 1518 some of the leading mer¬ 
chants in London consulted as to the prac¬ 
ticability of no longer dealing in the commo¬ 
dities of the East “at second hand,” and 
proposed to the government of Elizabeth that 
negotiations should be opened with the Sultan 
of Turkey for certain trading privileges in 
the Levant. These negotiations were opened, 
and proved successful. From that time the 
English began a new trade, importing Indian 
articles by that way. A modern writer, 
quoting Hakluyt, states:—“There was a very 
considerable trade to the Levant in English, 
bottoms, between the years 1512 and 1534. 
He tells us that several stout ships from 
London, Southampton, and Bristol had a con¬ 
stant trade to Candia, Rhodes, Cyprus, and 
Beyrout in Syria. Our imports were silks, 
camlets; rhubarb, malmsies, muscatels, and 
other wines; sweet oil, cotton goods, carpets, 
gall, cinnamon, and other spices. Our ex¬ 
ports were fine and coarse kerseys, white 
western dogan, cloths called statutes, and 
others called cardinal whites, skins, and 
leather. From a cotemporary document it 
appears, that in this early day Manchester 
had already acquired some fame as a manu¬ 
facturing town, particularly for the production 
of certain woollen cloths, which, singularly 
enough, were called cottons, a corruption of 
coatings." 

From 1576 to the end of the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury various efforts to form a direct trading 
intercourse with India were made, and the 
enterprise of Cavendish at the close of the 
century, following the reports made by Ste¬ 
phens of his voyage to Goa round the Cape 
of Good Hope, stimulated the enterprise of 
the London merchants, and a society was 
formed, entitled “ The Governor and Company 
of Merchanfs of London trading to the East 



Chap. XXI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


377 


Indies.” * This society was constituted a 
body corporate by Elizabeth. “ The first 
English fleet which was dispatched to India 
(a.d. 1601) consisted of five ships, under the 
command of Captain Lancaster. These an¬ 
chored in the roads of'Achen in June of the 
following year; and one of the first acts of 
the commodore was to form a commercial 
treaty with the prince of the country. 
Having bartered some of the merchandize 
for such articles as the place furnished, Lan¬ 
caster made sail for Java, to complete the 
homeward lading with spices, gums, silks, salt¬ 
petre, &c.; and finally, after arranging another 
treaty with the King of Bantam, he returned 
home well freighted with a valuable cargo.” 
This was followed by other successful voyages, 
especially in the year 1605. The jealousy of 
the Portuguese and Dutch was roused; the 
former made desperate efforts to destroy the 
English ships, but the company having sent 
out larger and stronger vessels, as the neces¬ 
sity of doing so became apparent, the Por¬ 
tuguese were defeated with terrible, loss of 
ships and men. The Dutch were more wary, 
hut not less hostile; and although that nation 
was much indebted to Elizabeth for her aid 
in its struggles against the power of Spain, it 
nevertheless united with the Indo-Portuguese 
to prevent the English from the pursuit of 
lawful and peaceable commerce. The alliance 
was fatal to the Dutch. Had they favoured 
their old allies, and only competed with them 


in a just and honourable rivalry, they might 
have long continued to share the profits of 
oriental trade in a degree worthy of their 
original enterprise. Holland adopted a dis¬ 
honourable, selfish, and ungrateful policy, and 
met the fate such conduct merited. 

In previous chapters of this History the 
government of the East India Company has 
been stated, and in chap. xiii. an historical 
sketch of the institution and progress of the 
company was given preliminary to such 
statement. In future chapters narrating the 
course of events in India, the development of 
the company’s power will he traced. So 
mingled did the commercial and the poli¬ 
tical become, that they must be related 
together when events in India after the first 
enterprises of the English are detailed. When, 
ultimately, the Dutch were completely humi¬ 
liated by Oliver Cromwell, England had no 
longer a rival in her eastern commerce, until 
the enterprise of France, and the skill of a 
few gifted Frenchmen, excited her apprehen¬ 
sions. The issue of the struggle with France 
was as triumphant as those with the Portu¬ 
guese and Dutch, leaving England undisputed 
mistress of the commerce of the Indian seas, 
as well as the only European power occupy¬ 
ing a formidable position from the Persian 
Gulf to Hong-Kong. The extent and cha¬ 
racter of the trade which now exists between 
Britain and her possessions in the East, will 
form the subject of separate chapters. 


CHAPTER XXI. 

COMMERCE ( Continued )-MODE OE TRANSACTING BUSINESS IN INDIA—THE CURRENCY- 
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES—IMPORT OP SILVER—IMPORT AND EXPORT OP GENERAL 
MERCHANDIZE. 


A considerable proportion of the capital 
employed in Indian commerce belongs to 
English merchants, representatives of whom 
reside at the chief cities in the presidencies, 
where they establish houses of business, pur¬ 
chase the commodities of India, and ship them 
to the British Isles, China, the East India 
Archipelago, and Australia; for these ship¬ 
ments British commodities or silver are taken 
in exchange. Certain natives are always em¬ 
ployed by the European merchants or their 
representatives. These are called banyans 
in Bengal; the term signifies a merchant, 
trader, or commercial employ^. The banyan 
acts as interpreter and agent, and generally 
manages the money dealings of his European 
employer with the natives. This description 
* See chap. xiii. p. 286. 


of official is very fond of assuming the title 
dowan, which is expressive of authority dele¬ 
gated to a confidential person, and is used by 
the native princes in transactions of palace 
regulation, of state, and of policy. The ban¬ 
yans are always Hindoos, and generally per¬ 
sons of property, influence, and commercial 
credit. These men have gained great in¬ 
fluence over the English houses of business, 
and transact much of the monetary and com¬ 
mercial affairs of the presidencies. Their 
bonds of security are taken in government 
contracts, and they often control the fate of 
an embarrassed concern. Sometimes those 
men have been found convenient instruments 
by officials who had the power to bestoAV a 
contract, and which of course the individual 
holding the patronage dared not bestow upon 

3 o 


VOL. I. 




378 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


himself. The banyan receives the contract 
ostensibly, but really for the official, who vir¬ 
tually confers it upon himself, the native agent 
accepting a per centage for his trouble and 
responsibility. 

The bearing of the banyan towards his 
European employer was formerly, and to 
some extent is still, very independent, and 
sometimes arrogant. He entered the office 
slipshod, which is a tacit assertion of equality, 
and there conducted himself as if he were 
major domo, giving directions to his sircars, 
hircarahs, &c., classes of underlings by whom 
the great man was attended. Of late years 
these persons have become unfashionable, but 
their pecuniary resources are such that in 
large speculations, and when heavy advances 
to indigo and sugar-planters are necessary, 
their aid is indispensable. 

In Madras similar persons are called dubash, 
a corruption of divi bashi, one who can speak 
two languages, referring to the freedom with 
which these men can speak and Avrite Eng¬ 
lish as well as their nati\'e tongue. The 
same is the case with the banyans of Bengal, 
and frequently even with the sircars and hir¬ 
carahs by whom they are attended. When 
the services of all these classes are dispensed 
with, native clerks are employed, who can 
read and write English with accuracy and 
fluency. 

The warehouses of the chief presidential 
cities are called godowns. In these, or in 
bonded warehouses, the produce imported to 
India is placed. 

The baboos, purvoes. and other native com¬ 
mercial servants, are content to receive very 
small salaries, commonly ranging from £15 
to £60 per year; but some have as much as 
£180 a year, and a few somewhat more. 

Peons are attached to most offices to carry 
notes—or chits, as they are termed—to various 
places of business. This sort of service is 
rendered necessary by the severe heat, ren¬ 
dering active exertion on the part of Euro¬ 
peans often impossible, and generally difficult. 

Bills of exchange, called hoondees, are used 
for remittance from one part of India to an¬ 
other. They are obtained from bankers, who 
abound in all the important cities. 

Treasury notes are much used for remit¬ 
tance by the offices of government. These 
are bills issued by the civil authorities for 
cash paid to them. 

Securities in government notes, bearing 
interest, similar to our exchequer bills, are 
much sought after by those who are desirous 
to make investments, whether Europeans or 
natives. These government promissory notes 
are useful as deposits for loans, in which way 
money can always be obtained cheaply by 


[Chap. XXI. 

those desirous of retaining the stock, but 
requiring advances. 

Bank-notes are issued by the banks in 
India, and obtain circulation to a moderate 
extent. 

Monetary transactions between England 
and India are conducted mainly by bills of 
exchange, supported by bills of lading. 

The coinage of India consists of rupees, 
annas, and pice. One rupee equals sixteen 
annas; one anna equals three pice. The 
rupee is a silver coin, about the size and 
value of a florin, and is divisible into half - 
rupees and quarter-rupees. The only gold 
coin existing in Bengal is the mohur, which is 
worth sixteen rupees, or thirty-two shillings 
British money. This coin is, however, seldom 
seen, as one class of natives export it when it 
comes into their possession, and others melt 
it down for the purpose of fabricating personal 
ornaments. In Madras the star pagoda was 
once circulated, but is now hardly known. 
On the coasts, and to some extent in the 
interior, among the poorest classes, cowries 
have cuiTency. These are small shells; their 
value fluctuates so much, that copper coin is 
rapidly displacing them. 

In the conversion of the rupee into the 
equivalent currency of other nations in draw¬ 
ing bills of exchange, the fluctuation of the 
relative value of the precious metals inter se 
is taken into consideration, from the circum¬ 
stance of gold being in some, and silver in 
others, the legal medium of circulation. It is 
also necessary to take account for the mint 
charge for coining at each place, which adds 
a fictitious value to the local coin. The par 
of exchange is, for these reasons, a somewhat 
ambiguous term, requiring to be distinguished 
under two more definite denominations : first, 
the intrinsic par, which represents that case 
in which the pure metal contained in the 
parallel denominations of coins is equal; 
secondly, the commercial par, or that case in 
which the current value of the coinage at 
each place (after deducting the seignorage 
leviable for coinage) is equal, or, in other 
w’ords, “two sums of money of different 
countries are commercially at par, while they 
can purchase an equal quantity of the same 
kind of pure metal.” Thus, if silver be taken 
from India to England, it must be sold to a 
bullion merchant at the market price, the 
proprietor receiving payment in gold (or 
notes controvertible into it). The London 
mint is closed against the importer of silver, 
which metal has not, therefore, a minimum 
value in the English market, fixed by the 
mint price, although it has so in Calcutta, 
where it may always be converted into coin at 
a charge of two per cent. On the other hand, 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


379 


Chap. XXI.] 

if a remittance in gold be made from India to 
England, its out-turn there is known and 
fixed. The new Calcutta gold mohur fluc¬ 
tuates as considerably in India as that of 
silver does in England, the natural tendency 
of commerce being to bring to an equilibrium 
the operations of exchange in the two metals. 
The exchange between England and India 
has, therefore, a twofold expression : for silver, 
the price of the sicca rupee in shillings and 
pence; for gold, the price of the sovereign in 
rupees.* 

In the Straits settlements, and in the Island 
of Ceylon, the Spanish dollar is the coin 
which circulates most freely. It has been 
shown in the chapters describing these places 
that the merchants and settlers prefer this 
coin to the rupee, with which the government 
of India desire to supersede it. At Aden 
the Austrian dollar circulates. 

The system of British India weights and 
measures is founded upon the principle of 
making the maund, or highest nominal weight, 
equal to one hundred English troy pounds, 
and thirty-five seers equal to seventy-two 
pounds avoirdupois, thus establishing a simple 
connection, void of fractions, between the 
two English metrical scales and that of India. 
The unit of the British ponderary system is 
called the tola. It weighs a hundred and 
eighty grains English troy weight. From it 
upwards are derived the heavy weights, viz., 
the chittack, the seer, and maund :— 

lbs. oz. dwts. grs. 

The maund is equal to. 100 0 0 0 

The seer „ 2 6 0 0 

The chittack „ 1 17 12 0 

The tola „ . 7 12 f 

The weights used by goldsmiths and 
jewellers are smaller—such as the masha, 
which is equivalent to fifteen grains; the 
cuttee, which is equal to 1'875; the dhau, 
which is but one-fourth of a grain. 

The currency of India is a subject which of 
late years has undergone sharp discussion both 
in the presidencies and at home. It has en¬ 
gaged the serious attention of the board of 
directors, and has obtained perhaps an equally 
earnest consideration from financiers and politi¬ 
cal economists. The currency of a country is a 
subject as closely connected with government 
as with commerce, and might be discussed 
with equal propriety under either head; but 
the influence of Indian currency, regarded in 
all its conditions, upon the commerce of that 
country is so determinate and important, and 
is so rapidly being developed in new phases, 
that this chapter seems the most proper place 
for treating of it. 

The legal tender in India is silver, and the 
* Captain Stocqueler. f Ibid. 


amount in circulation is probably a hundred 
and forty millions sterling, although some 
writers estimate it as high as a hundred and 
sixty millions. The company's rupee consists 
of 11T2, or 165 grains of pure silver, and 
1T2, or fifteen grains of alloy. Considerable 
hesitation seems to have pervaded the councils 
of the government of India in making silver 
the sole legal tender. Lord Cornwallis, at 
the time he established the sicca rupee for the 
currency of Bengal, also regulated the circu¬ 
lation of the old gold mohur as a legal tender 
for sixteen sicca rupees, “but that coin was 
always of a high agio, and never found place 
in the currency of the country.” Prices were 
expressed in rupees. The land settlements 
by the Marquis of Cornwallis himself were 
regulated in rupees, and the public debt was 
contracted in the same coin. Since the time 
of Akbar gold coin has had a fluctuating 
value, and was bought and sold at an agio for 
presentations and offerings to great men, and 
for weddings and religious ceremonies, while 
silver was used as the basis of the circulation. 
In the south of India the gold pagoda circu¬ 
lated until within the last thirty years. It 
seems to have been alike the desire of the 
government and people of India to withdraw 
the gold currency, and substitute silver. In 
a letter from the government of India to the 
court of directors, dated the 24th of June, 
1835, the following decision is expressed:— 
“No gold coin will henceforward be a legal 
tender of payment in any of the territories of 
the East India Company; but.the gold pieces to 
be hereafter coined will circulate at whatever 
rate of value relatively to the legal silver cur¬ 
rency of the country they may bear to cur¬ 
rency. The governor-general in council will 
from time to time fix the rate by proclama¬ 
tion in the Calcutta Gazette at which they 
shall be received and issued at the public 
treasuries, in lieu of the legal silver currency 
of British India. Until further orders, that 
rate will be as the names of the tokens denote 
—the gold mohur for fifteen rupees; the Jive 
rupee piece for five rupees; the ten rupee 
piece for ten rupees; the thirty rupee piece 
for thirty rupees.” 

It was soon seen by the Indian govern¬ 
ment that, as these gold coins were not a 
legal tender, their issue at a prescribed rate in 
relation to the coin which was a legal tender 
was inconsistent and impracticable, and ac¬ 
cordingly, in 1841, by proclamation, the 
public functionaries were authorized to receive 
them at the previous rate of fifteen to one, 
“to be disposed of as might be ordered by 
the accountant-general, or the accountant of 
the presidency.” 

In 1844 it seems to have been the policy 





380 


HISTORY OP THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XXI, 


of tlie government to encourage tlie coinage 
of gold, for a reduction of seignorage from 
two to one per cent, was ' ordered on gold 
bullion coined in Madras and Bombay. This 
rate had existed in Bengal for seven years 
previous. The seignorage on silver coin 
remained at two per cent. 

In 1850 the value of gold in relation to 
silver had so sensibly depreciated, and the 
prospect of a further relative depreciation 
appeared so certain, that the sub-treasurer at 
Calcutta made a report upon the subject. 
This condition of things continued to impress 
the government, and in 1852 notice was 
given that payment in gold would not be 
received in the public treasury; and that the 
act of 1835, instituting silver as the exclusive 
standard of value, would be enforced. 

Objections are taken to silver as the stan¬ 
dard. One of these rests on the desirable¬ 
ness, if not the necessity, of having the same 
legal tender as in the country whose supre¬ 
macy gives law to India. Another is founded 
on the cumbrous nature of an exclusive silver 
currency creating extensive inconvenience to 
the government, which is obliged to hold 
larger balances than would, it is alleged, be 
necessary with a more available currency. 
It is an established rule in India to have a 
balance of eight millions, and it is generally 
half as much more. In 1855, when the public 
works loan was contracted, there was a 
balance held of eight millions, but the loan 
was resorted to because there was not enough 
in the Calcutta treasury for even an expen¬ 
diture of two months. It is replied to this 
objection, and with reason, that the area of 
territory is so vast, and the means of transit 
so imperfect over a large portion of that area, 
that it would be difficult in emergencies to 
make either gold or silver available to a large 
amount at any given place. The troops being 
quartered in garrisons so numerous and re¬ 
mote, and the various centres of government 
being so widespread, it is necessary that 
treasuries be maintained in numerous places 
far away from the seat of the supreme go¬ 
vernment. An experienced public officer, 
well known in India and in England, thus 
expressed himself on this subject :—“ Al¬ 
though I entirely agree in the opinion that 
under the present system a cash balance of 
upwards of eight crores has been proved to 
be insufficient, I am still of opinion that under 
a different system that amount would be an 
ample working capital wherewith to admin¬ 
ister the government in ordinary times. Eight 
or nine millions of money, of which not a 
farthing is available wherewith to answer an 
unexpected demand, seems to me an enor¬ 
mous sum to be required merely as it were to 


oil the financial machinery. I cannot but 
think that too large an aggregate sum is 
allowed to be frittered away among too many 
small treasuries. There is really only one 
place where it is of importance to have 
always a large spare balance, and that is the 
general treasury of Calcutta. Of four-fifths 
of the district treasuries any one may be run 
dry any day without any public inconvenience, 
nevertheless, the greater part of the eight or 
nine millions is always lying in these small 
treasuries. It would require much time, 
detailed knowledge, and thought, to make an 
effectual and safe alteration of this system in 
this respect, but I cannot believe that’ it is 
not to be done.” * 

The impossibility of rapidly concentrating 
specie, from the great bulk and weight of 
money in silver, constrains the employment 
of a large number of the military in conduct¬ 
ing and guarding treasure. The testimony 
of Sir Charles Napier as to the injury thus 
sustained to the public service is important:— 
“ Treasure ought to be guarded by the hir- 
kendauses and chupprcissees, but regular troops 
are employed by regiments, wings, detach¬ 
ments, and their marches are usually in the 
hottest season of the year and to great dis¬ 
tances. Sometimes they are two or three 
months under European officers, often young, 
inexperienced, and unable, from the heat, to 
exert themselves. The duty is, therefore, 
done according to their bodily strength, the 
general relaxation of discipline in the army, 
and particular state of it in each regiment, 
and always such fatigue is incurred in guard¬ 
ing treasure in the hot season as to oppress 
natives as well as Europeans, officers and 
sepoys. These treasure guards resemble the 
Cape patrols against Caffres as to fatigue; 
but the patrols are made in the finest climate 
in the world, whereas the Indian treasure 
guards march in floods of heat, and exposed 
to deadly fevers. The patrol soldiers are 
cheered by a glory which their devotion, cou¬ 
rage, and endurance merit. The poor treasure 
guard sepoy has no glory, no moral support 
under suffering; he falls under fatigue, the 
sun, and fever, unheeded, unheard of, a victim 
to duties not military. Between the 1st of 
January and the 31st of October of the fol¬ 
lowing year 25,716 infantry and 3364 cavalry 
—total, 29,080 soldiers—were furnished for 
treasure escorts alone, exclusive of all other 
civil duties. Moreover, on nine occasions 
detachments, in two instances of whole regi¬ 
ments, are not included, because, from acci¬ 
dents, their numbers are not in my posses¬ 
sion. Even this falls short of the truth. 

* Minute of Mr. J. P. Grant on the Public Works 
Loan, Parliamentary Paper 280, Session 1855. 




Chap. XXI.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


381 


During part of that time the general relief of 
corps was going on, and treasure was fre¬ 
quently sent with relieving regiments not 
included above. From twenty to thirty thou¬ 
sand men are, therefore, annually employed 
on this one branch of civil duty, for long 
periods and to great distances. Such are the 
severe trials of the Bengal army, injurious to 
its discipline, heart-breaking to its best offi¬ 
cers, who are devoted to the service.” * 

It is affirmed by the objectors to a silver 
currency that the inconvenience experienced 
by the government is shared by the com¬ 
mercial community, and is felt by the whole 
population of India. It is necessary for the 
merchants and bankers to employ a numerous 
class of persons to convey remittances. They 
carry about a thousand rupees (£100) each 
upon their persons, so that ten men are 
engaged in the service of remitting £1000! 
The same burden in sovereigns for each man 
would amount in value to £1600. The 
Thugs, Dacoits, and other robbers, are expert 
in lying in wait for treasure-bearers. In reply 
to these objections it is urged that there 
cannot be two legal tenders, one of gold and 
one of silver; and that so small are the pay¬ 
ments made to the sepoys and among the 
people to one another, that a currency such 
as exists would alone be adapted to the wants 
of the country. It is also maintained that 
notwithstanding such inconveniences as may 
be supposed or proved to exist, the people 
and the government find the advantages of 
the actual currency more than a counter¬ 
balance. It is affirmed by the advocates of 
the rupee standard that even now, for the first 
time, if provision were to be made for the 
currency of such a country, the silver standard 
would be the better; but that having existed 
for so long a period, and thoroughly meeting 
the wishes and necessities of the people at 
large, any attempt to abolish the silver for a 
gold currency would be unnecessary and 
empirical. 

A more important argument against making 
gold a legal tender, is founded on the fact 
that the public debt, and all public salaries 
and engagements, have been contracted for on 
the basis of a legal tender of silver. Gold is, 
in relation to silver, steadily sinking in value; 
the average yield of the silver mines of the 
world is about eight millions per year, and 
the supply, if not stationary, increases slowly, 
whereas the supply of gold has increased 
greatly. Silver is, therefore, more valuable 
now in relation to gold than when the public 
debt was incurred, and the engagements of 
the country, based on the silver standard, were 
formed. By the amount of this difference 
* Indian Misgoveminent, fourth edition, p. 233. 


the property of the public and private creditor, 
and the covenanted servants of the govern¬ 
ment, would be confiscated. This argument 
has undoubtedly weighed both with the go¬ 
vernment of India, the directors, and British 
cabinets. 

The alteration of the legal tender from 
silver to gold, while the tendency in their 
relative value continues to be what it is, 
would create a revolution of prices in India 
of a serious nature. Where gold is the 
standard, its increasing quantities have raised 
the relative value of all other commodities as 
well as of silver, but this change has not taken 
place in India, because the standard was not 
gold. On the contrary, the increased value 
of silver tends to lower prices, but the effect 
as yet is not appreciable to any great degree, 
because the influx of silver has been equal 
to the demand. If gold be made a legal 
tender, the result must be the same in India 
as in England—all other things being equal 
—an upward tendency in prices. 

From these considerations it is obvious that 
if such a change be made in India at all, it 
must be wrought out with care, with a scru¬ 
pulous regard to vested interests, and so as to 
disturb as little as possible the commerce and 
economy of the country. 

Closely connected with the question of the 
existence of silver as the legal tender of 
India, is the subject of the importation of 
silver into that country. In the vulgar par¬ 
lance of mercantile affairs the balance of 
trade is in favour of India. According to 
the principles of political economy there can, 
of course, be no balance of trade in favour of 
any country. The precious metals are com¬ 
modities to be received or exported as other 
articles of commerce. India receives silver 
because she prefers that return for her ex¬ 
ports, either from necessity or taste. If any 
other article becomes more valued, she will, 
as a matter of ordinary traffic, export her sil¬ 
ver to obtain it, if she do not possess some 
other articles more in request by her cus¬ 
tomers, and which she prefers to part with. 
China receives silver for her tea from Europe, 
but she readily parts with it again for opium 
to India. Both nations follow, in their deal¬ 
ing, a common and determinate law, which 
must operate upon their relations with others, 
according to mutual necessities and means of 
supply. India is not rich in gold and silver, 
and in all ages she has placed a high value 
upon them. Accordingly, she has always 
been an importer to a large extent, so that 
Pliny called her “ the sink of the precious 
metals.” The eagerness of the natives of all 
these vast regions for gold and silver orna¬ 
ments, and the few things, comparatively, 



382 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XXI. 


which they require among the productions of 
other countries, will account for this con¬ 
tinued importation. That it has now reached 
a vast magnitude, is evident from an ex¬ 
amination of existing documents. Colonel 
Sykes, M.P., a distinguished member of the 
committee in Leadenhall Street, and formerly 
its chairman, has given very particular atten¬ 
tion to the matter.* According to this autho¬ 
rity, India imported in the eight years ending 
30th of April, 1842, bullion to the amount of 
fifteen millions sterling. According to another 
authority,f the bullion imported during the 
seven years ending 30th of April, 1849, was 
sixteen millions. Colonel Sykes affirms that 
during the five years ending the 30th of April, 
1854, the bullion imported reached the value 
of nineteen millions. In 1855-6 she re¬ 
ceived from Great Britain and the Mediter¬ 
ranean ports alone £9,340,664, all of which, 
except £37,148, was in silver. In 1857 she 
received from the same places £226,750 in 
gold, and £13,246,684 in silver. Besides 
these immense imports in those latter years, 
she received also a considerable amount from 
China. The total export of silver to India 
and China in 1857, was twenty millions 
sterling, the demand of China being nearly 
equal to that of India. This large amount is 
more than double the produce of silver for 
that year from all the mines where it is ob¬ 
tained. The silver received in India has been 
chiefly in coin, yet this vast increase to the 
currency has not in any appreciable manner 
affected prices. 

Independent of the natural operation of 
the laws of political economy already referred 
to, there have been social and political influ¬ 
ences at work in India which caused the ab¬ 
sorption of such vast sums. The love of orna¬ 
ments—of the precious metals—has always 
operated in that direction, but more so in 
seasons of insecurity. There can be no doubt 
that a large portion of the people of India, as 
well as the whole Bengal army, expected for 
some years a revolt on a vast scale against 
British ascendancy. This led to an increase 
in the use of bracelets, anklets, earrings, neck¬ 
laces, and waistbands of silver, as it was be¬ 
lieved to be the safest mode in which treasure 
could be preserved. 

The habit of secret hoarding grows upon a 
people whose lot is insecure, and remains long 
after the peculiar circumstances which led to 
it have passed away; this has been another 

* The External Commerce of British India. By- 
Colonel Sykes, F.R.S. (Read before the Statistical So¬ 
ciety, 21st of January, 1856, and reprinted from their 
Journal.) 

_ t Tables of imports and exports for the three pre¬ 
sidencies, in the Appendix to the Commons’ Reports on 
Indian Affairs for 1852, p. 341. j 


source of the absorption of silver. The ex¬ 
pectation so widely entertained of a coming 
convulsion, increased this habit during the 
last few years, and will partly account for 
the little influence upon prices, and upon the 
circulation which these large imports created. 

The political causes which have operated 
have aided the social influences already in 
existence. As compared with that of native 
governments, the system of the East India 
Company occasions the necessity of a far 
more extended currency. Under the former 
the troops were to a certain extent paid in 
kind, and in a great degree supported on the 
lands of those to whom they owed a feudal 
service of arms. The company pays all its 
servants in cash. The creation of a public 
debt, the interest of which has to be paid in 
coin, creates another demand. The remission 
of several millions sterling per annum from 
India to the home government of necessity 
creates a demand for coin to meet the drain, 
although this tribute is paid in produce. The 
power of these governmental operations may 
be gathered from the chapters on revenue 
already before the reader, and from the fol¬ 
lowing general glance :—The receipts of the 
home treasury of the East India Company 
from the 1st of January to the 30th of April, 
1858, are estimated at £5,156,023, and the 
disbursements at £4,296,065, leaving a balance 
in favour of £859,958. The disbursements 
for the year ending the 30th of April, 1859, 
are estimated at £11,186,026, being—for 
Indian railways, £2,511,093; payments to 
government, £1,474,711; annuities, &c., pay¬ 
able in England, £1,403,480; stores and trans¬ 
port, 1,099,442; loan from the Bank of Eng¬ 
land, repayable on the 1st of October next, 
£1,000,000; minimum amount required to 
be held in cash, £1,000,000; dividends and 
interest, £980,000; bonds notified for dis¬ 
charge, £653,900; general charges, £595,800; 
amount repayable to security fund, £315,000; 
and bills of exchange and homeward, &c., 
£152,600. To meet these disbursements there 
will be available £2,500,000 from Indian rail¬ 
way companies, £120,000 from government 
for supplies, a like sum from bills of exchange 
on India, and the estimated balance in hand, 
amounting in all to £3,599,958, and leaving 
a deficiency of £7,586,068.* 

Independent of the action of government 
in reference to cash payments, the funded 
debt, and the home tribute, there was another 
cause in the modus operands in collecting 
the land revenue. This source of taxation, 
as shown on a former page, was transmitted 
from the native princes, but thej T very gene¬ 
rally received payment in kind, whereas the 
* The Times' city article, January, 1858. 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


Chap. XXI.] 

British insisted upon payment in cash. This 
was the secret of the sufferings of the ryots, 
although so lightly taxed. In the settlement 
of the Punjaub Sir Henry Lawrence found 
the desire for payments in kind one of the 
chief obstructions to the progress of his salu¬ 
tary measures. The motive was the same 
as actuated the ryots in India to urge the 
same request—viz., the fact, of cash payments 
lowering prices. This was invariably the 
first effect produced by insisting upon the 
payment of the land revenue in rupees. The 
Bombay Quarterly Review places the subject 
in this light:—“ An all-important step in 
Anglo-Indian administration was to collect 
the land-tax in money instead of realizing it 
in kind, according to the practice which had 
virtually, if not nominally, obtained to a great 
extent under native rule. The immediate 
and inevitable consequence of this general 
enforcement of money assessments was, that 
the amount of coin previously circulating, and 
sufficient for the adjustment of the limited 
transactions connected with revenue and 
commerce under the native system, proved 
quite inadequate for the settlement, without 
a derangement of prices, of the greatly en¬ 
larged transactions resulting from the British 
system. Under the native system the sale 
for cash of a small part of the agricultural 
produce of a district sufficed to provide for 
all its liabilities connected with taxation and 
commerce. Under the British system, on the 
contrary, twice, or perhaps three times, the 
quantity of produce had to be so sold in order 
to provide for the same objects, owing to the 
whole amount of the land-tax being demanded 
in coin. But the supply of coin remaining as 
before, the effect of this increased demand for 
it was of course to enhance its price. The 
coin in circulation had to perform double or 
treble the work it had accomplished before. 
The ryot, requiring more cash to pay his 
money assessment, had of course to bring 
more produce to market, which occasioned a 
glut, and brought down prices. And this 
state of things was aggravated by the demand 
for grain and forage in the country markets 
being less than before, owing to the disband¬ 
ing of the irregular force which had been 
kept up by the native jagheerdars and other 
functionaries of the former government, and 
to the increased production due to an exten¬ 
sion of cultivation by means of these disbanded 
levies. Prices fell more and more, until in 
many cases our collectors found it to be wholly 
impossible to collect the full land assessment, 
and large remissions had to be annually made. 
The village grain merchants, who are also 
the village bankers, deprived of a sufficient 
market at their own doors, were compelled, in 


588 

order to find money to supply their consti¬ 
tuents with, to seek more distant markets for 
the disposal of the produce left upon their 
hands in liquidation of advances previously 
made by them to the ryots. This awakened 
a spirit of greater enterprize and activity 
among the commercial classes, which was 
gradually communicated to the ryots, and laid 
the germ of that active foreign trade which 
now advances with gigantic strides, and has 
already penetrated into the remotest recesses 
of the interior. This collateral benefit con¬ 
ferred by the British plan of administration, 
has fairly set free the dormant energies of the 
people.” 

The influx of silver will raise the price of 
gold and of all other commodities in India, 
eventually necessitating the exportation of 
the surplus silver, unless the discovery of 
new mines elsewhere greatly increase the 
quantity. The efforts of France and the 
United States of America to displace their 
silver currency by gold, set free an amount 
of the former which sustained the large Eu¬ 
ropean exports to the East. Other countries, 
following the example of these nations, will 
set free a further amount of silver, which will 
inevitably flow in the same direction. But 
when the railways are completed in India, 
and the commerce of different parts of her 
territory with one another is developed, and 
of all India with other portions of the East, a 
natural reaction will gradually take place. 

It has been remarked that the influx of 
silver to India came to a considerable extent 
through China, in consequence of the opium 
trade between India and that country. China, 
by her immense exportations of tea and silk, 
and her comparatively small imports of Euro¬ 
pean and American productions, receives a 
large quantity of silver, and this must be 
taken into account in calculating the relation 
of the Indian demand to the supply of that 
metal. The general trade of China was 
stated in the chapter upon that country. It 
is here only necessary to show the present 
prospects of the grand staple of Chinese ex¬ 
port, tea, which is chiefly exchanged for 
silver, to enable the reader to form some 
judgment upon the subject. On another page 
the opium export to China from India, which 
is chiefly given in return for silver, will fur¬ 
nish additional data for general conclusions. 
The following account of the character of the 
tea trade with China during the year 1857, 
from the trade circular of an eminent house 
in the city, furnishes the fullest and most re¬ 
cent information for the present purpose :— 

“ The course of the tea market during the. 
past year has been checkered—the range of 
fluctuation fully 20 per cent.; while the result 



384 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XXI. 


shows an average advance of about 10 per 
cent, upon most descriptions of black, and a 
fall of from 15 to 20 per cent, on some classes 
of green. It opened under considerable ex¬ 
citement, and large speculative business en¬ 
sued at enhancing prices, stimulated by the 
news of the burning of the foreign factories 
at Canton, and the prospect of the partial 
stoppage of exports Shortly after the whole 
trade was disarranged, and almost paralyzed, 
by the sudden proposition to put the duty at 
a higher point than had been previously fixed 
by law; and, although this matter was subse¬ 
quently compromised at Is. Sd. per pound, the 
previous tone of the market was not recovered, 
and considerable sales were made at a mate¬ 
rial decline. On the new duties coming into 
full operation, and the deliveries being found 
to be so much larger than was expected (the 
duty payments in one month having been on 
fifteen millions of pounds), all parties showed 
increased confidence, and this was greatly 
strengthened by the confirmation of the ex¬ 
pected large falling off of the supplies for the 
season of 1856-7, proving ultimately to be 
no less than twenty-seven millions. A de¬ 
mand having simultaneously sprung up for 
export to the United States for both black 
and green, a large amount of business was 
done at an advance of from 1 \d. to 2 d. per 
pound. 

“ During the next four months the fluctu¬ 
ations were unimportant, but prices were on 
the whole well sustained, the departure of 
Lord Elgin from China to India aiding specu¬ 
lation. The highest general range was, how¬ 
ever, now attained, for, although the account 
of the first crop of Kisows was confirmed, and 
most extravagant prices were being paid 
in China for the new teas, under the idea 
that this would be another year of short 
supply, and that prices must consequently 
advance at home, the report of continued 
shipments led to a decline here. In October 
came the American crisis, and eventually a 
fall of 1 \d. to 2d. per pound on black, and 3d. 
to 4d. per pound on several sorts of green 
was submitted to. From this there was no 
recovery ; and as the money pressure became 
more and more severe, so prices further gave 
way (although the principal importers held 
their stocks altogether off the market), as 
the necessities of parties (chiefly speculators) 
compelled them to realize. Subsequently a 
gradual restoration of confidence resulted. 
Meanwhile, general business was almost sus¬ 
pended ; the tea trade suffered less than many 
others, but common congou gradually drooped 
until sales were made for cash at lid., and 
ordinary was unsaleable at 10 d. per pound. 
There were, however, no sellers of sound on 


usual three months’ terms under Is. per 
pound. On -receipt of the telegraphic news 
of the expected attack on Canton a slightly 
revived demand took place, and during the 
last two days of the year transactions were 
reported at Is. 0 \d. and Is. 0 Id. per pound 
for common congou. The imports into the 
United Kingdom have been 61,000,000 lbs., 
against 87,741,000 lbs. in 1856. The de¬ 
liveries for home consumption have been 
69,000,000 lbs., against 63,000,000 lbs. in 
1856. The deliveries for exportation have 
been 9,000,000 lbs. against 6,241,000 lb. in 
1856. The stock remaining on the 31st 
of December was 71,000,000 lbs., against 
88,000,000 lbs. in 1856. 

“ The imports have fallen off no less than 
26,750,000 lbs. as compared with last year, 
being about 15,750,000 lbs. short of the 
average of the previous five years. The de¬ 
liveries show a total surplus of 8,750,000 lbs. 
over last year, and about 9,500,000 lbs. 
beyond the average of the five previous years. 
Of the excess, 6,000,000lbs. was in the 
quantity taken for home consumption, and 
2,750,000 lbs. in the exports, chiefly to the 
United States. The present stock, although 
17,000,000 lbs. less than at the end of 1856, 
is still nearly equal to eleven months’ re¬ 
quirement at this year’s rate of delivery, and 
5,000,000 lbs. beyond the average of the 
preceding five years.” 

Imports by India and China of European 
goods increase, but they are small compared 
with the exports of eastern produce. China 
indeed is a large importer from India, but that 
circumstance is chiefly due to the passion for 
opium. England does not find such a market 
for her manufactures in the East, as her vast 
imports thence would justify her in expecting. 
From Great Britain and Ireland the exports 
to Australia are nearly as great as those to 
the East Indies. During the year 1857, they 
were—to Australia, £11,626,146 ; to the East 
Indies only £11,648,341. This state of 
things admits of explanation. A writer who 
paid attention especially to the condition of 
the presidency of Bombay says :—“Not only 
the principal towns and cities, but many of 
the larger description of villages are abun¬ 
dantly supplied with European manufactures 
of every sort, such as the natives require. 
They are provided with these by a race of 
men who purchase the commodities at Bom¬ 
bay, and retail them all over the Deccan. 
The articles generally consist of woollens, 
English chintzes, knives, scissors, razors, 
spectacles, looking-glasses, small prints, and 
different sorts of hardware ; but the great 
mass of the people have not the means, if 
they had the inclination, to purchase any 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


Chap. XXI.] 

considerable quantity of European goods. 
Any surplus that remains after tbe immediate 
supply of tbeir necessities is always expended 
in tbeir festivals, marriages, and religious 
ceremonies.” Wben it is alleged that not 
only the principal towns and cities, but also 
the villages, are abu.ndan.tly supplied with 
European manufactures, it is. not intended to 
say that any very great importation of such 
articles is made; but merely that the limited 
wants of the people are met, that there is no 
difficulty in the way of their obtaining such 
articles either from their inaccessibleness, or 
the want of means of conveyance to remote 
districts. It is admitted that the power of the 
natives to purchase is small, and that a taste 
for European articles is not yet formed among 
the masses, however it may partially exist 
among the natives of rank. Yet while the 
exports of India have been increasing out of 
all proportion to the imports, Mr. H. Green, 
the professor of literature at Poonah College, 
in his work on the Deccan ryots, represents 
the grand want of India to be increased ex-, 
port, and the chief source of impoverishment, 
the importation of foreign commodities. His 
words are “ The great desiderata are—more 
varieties of industry, and, above all things, 
more eligible and more abundant exports. 
Under our rule an unheard-of portion of the 
revenue of the country is spent for foreign 
commodities. A governor, a member ot 
council, a judge, or a collector, does not, as 
a native rajah or jagheerdar would, spend his 
income on crowds of retainers and hangers 
on of all kinds, creating a large demand for 
bajree, iowaree, ghee, and ghoor—he requires 
Long Were carriages, Arabian horses, French 
and Spanish wines, Parisian and London 
millinery, and a long list of foreign etceteras. 
The rich native also now imitates him in 
almost all these things, and even the com¬ 
paratively poor one expends whatever re¬ 
venue he may have, beyond what is just 
sufficient to supply him with necessaries, in 
English cloth and copper, and China silver 
and silk. This intense demand for foreign 
commodities renders it of vital importance 
that the exports which are to pay for them— 
and to provide also, if we are considering the 
ease of all India, for the large tribute which 
in various shapes we exact, but of which the 
Deccan probably pays no portion whatever— 
should be such as are in their turn greatly in 
demand among foreigners, and contain con¬ 
siderable value in small bulk, so as to be 
easily and cheaply transported. Our rule 
will be light or heavy in India, almost in 
exact proportion to the facility or the diffi¬ 
culty which the country has in creating a 
demand abroad for its products. Let us sup- 

VOL, i. 


3 PH 

pose a native prince and nobility—such as 
Bajirao and the Mahratta sirdars—were to 
suddenly change their tastes and habits, to 
dismiss the swarms of Brahmins hanging about 
them, and the sowars, peons, ghorawallas, 
and troops of idle servants, to whose mainten¬ 
ance their revenues had hitherto been de¬ 
voted, to keep but few horses, and these 
purchased from the Persian Gulf instead of 
from the walley of the Bheemthurry, and to 
spend, as we do, the revenues which sup¬ 
ported all these dependents in every variety 
of foreign luxury. The first effect, evidently, 
must be great misery to the classes thus de¬ 
prived of their accustomed means of living; 
the second, that the money no longer finding 
its way through these to the grain and other 
provision dealers, and through them to the 
producers, these latter will not have it to 
return to their rulers as revenue—there will 
be a general inability to pay the former rates 
for land, and every symptom of poverty and 
distress. In the meantime, the foreign luxuries 
m question being at first paid for in silver, 
the drain of this from the province will have 
produced falling prices. When these have 
fallen low enough to make it profitable to 
export the rude produce of the country, the 
drain will stop, and the foreign goods be 
henceforth paid for by these greatly dete¬ 
riorated products.” 

That the improvement of India will keep 
pace with her importation of useful foreign 
commodities in exchange for her own produc¬ 
tions is so obvious to all who are acquainted 
with the principles of political economy, that 
it is surprising to find men of note regarding 
her imports of the produce of other lands a 
disadvantage, and her exports for specie as 
her real profit. The lessons of a distinguished 
political economist might be studied by this 
class of the friends of Indian progress with 
advantage :—“ The commerce of one country 
with another is, in fact, merely an extension 
of that division of labour by which so many 
benefits are conferred upon the human race. 
As the same country is rendered the richer 
by the trade of one province with another, so 
its labour becomes thus infinitely more divided 
and more productive than it could otherwise 
have been; and as the mutual supply to one 
another of all the accommodations which one 
province has and the other wants multiplies 
the accommodation of the whole, the coun¬ 
try becomes thus, in a wonderful degree, more 
opulent and happy. The same beautiful 
train of consequences is observable in the 
world at large—that great empire of which 
the different kingdoms and tribes of men may 
be regarded as the provinces. In this mag¬ 
nificent empire, too, one province is favour- 



386 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


|"Chap. XXI. 


able to tbe production of one species of 
accommodation, and another province to an¬ 
other. By their mutual intercourse they are 
enabled to sort and distribute their labour as 
most peculiarly suits the genius of each par¬ 
ticular spot. The labour of the human race 
thus becomes much more productive, and 
every species of accommodation is afforded in 
much greater abundance. The same number 
of labourers whose efforts might have been 
expended in producing a very insignificant 
quantity of home-made luxuries may thus, in 
Great Britain, produce a quantity of articles 
for exportation, accommodated to the wants 
of other places, and peculiarly suited to the 
genius of Britain to furnish, which will pur¬ 
chase for her an accumulation of the luxuries 
of every quarter of the globe.” * 

The articles now chiefly imported by India 
are those which are rendered necessary or 
desirable by the presence of her conquerors; 
but the wealthy natives also consume many 
European products. The industrial population 
of India use little of the foreign articles which 
are set down upon her shores. The following 
account of her imports by Stopqueler gives too 
glowing a picture of what, nevertheless, is sub¬ 
stantially true :—“ The imports of India com¬ 
prise every single product; of Europe that can 
he calculated to improve the comfort or pro¬ 
mote the luxury of man in a civilized state. 
The raw cotton received from her is returned, 
after it has passed through the looms of' 
Manchester, Preston, and Paisley, in millions 
of yards. Hundreds of ships from England, 
the Clyde, from France, and the United 
States, visit her ports annually, laden with 
hardware and cutlery, with wines, ales, hams, 
cheeses, woollens, rich glass manufactures, 
books, bronze articles, steam-engines, print¬ 
ing-presses, varieties of iron and brass ma¬ 
chines, paper, hats, carriages, horses, furni¬ 
ture—in short, every production of nature, 
every offspring of the handiwork of man, ex¬ 
cepting such articles as are only adapted to 
the severest frosty regions, are carried to 
India. The carrying trade between Europe 
and India is conducted in vessels of all dimen¬ 
sions, from three to fifteen hundred tons. 
The steamers which ply round the Cape, and 
between the Red Sea and India, carry but a 
small amount of cargo.” The aggregate value 
of this commerce, thus described with so much 
warmth, is, so far as exports from the British 
Isles are concerned, not much larger than 
that taken by some of our thinly peopled 
colonies inhabited by our own race. 

The exports of India are indeed surprising 
in their variety, and vast in value. The 
writer last quoted thus describes them :—“ It 
* John Stuart Mill. 


would be difficult in describing the produce 
of India, which constitutes her exports, to 
distinguish very minutely between what has 
been grown and manufactured within the 
vast continent, and what has been conveyed 
thither from the Malayan peninsula, the 
islands of the Eastern Archipelago, China, 
Persia, &c., for the purpose of being re- 
shipped. An enumeration alone can be 
given of the articles which are brought to 
England and carried to other lands, leaving 
to persons interested in such inquiries to dis¬ 
tinguish between the absolute offspring of the 
soil of India, and the goods of which her ports 
have temporarily become the emporia. Ac¬ 
cording, then, to the returns to which access 
has been obtained, the grand exports from 
India consist of indigo, sugar, cotton, salt¬ 
petre, opium, silk, rice, pepper, betel-nuts, 
coffee, teak-timber, tobacco, drugs, dye-stuffs, 
sugar-candy, cocoa-nut oil, cochineal, coir, 
wax, ginger, cowries (shells), shawls, tama¬ 
rinds, talc, chillies •: all these are undoubtedly 
the produce of India proper. Of the follow¬ 
ing very many may be from India, but the 
most part are yielded by the islands and 
coasts in her vicinity, and the empire of 
China :—Tea, ivory, lac, gold and silver fila¬ 
gree-work, cornelians, ghee, grain, oils, 
putchock, seeds, soap, horses, sarda, cassia, 
turmeric, ambergris, Colombo root, elephants’ 
teeth, fish maws, sandal-wood, zedoary, coarse 
piece goods,. nankeen, dried fruits, tortoise¬ 
shell, cinnamon, arrack, areka-nuts, wild 
honey, precious stones, copperas, pearls, car¬ 
pets, dholl, flax, hemp, hides, horns, black 
salt, copper, tin, lead, wood-oil, earth-oil, 
dammer, silver, naptha, birds’ nests, timber, 
rattans, gold-dust, camphor, gum benjamin, 
argus’ feathers, kajiput oil, cloves, nutmegs, 
brimstone, birds of paradise, gum copal, civet, 
salt, rose-water, ottar of roses, sapan-wood, 
tutenague, shrimp caviar, cones, dragons’ 
blood, borax, and a multitude of drugs and 
cotton piece goods of rude manufacture.” 

To state the exact quantities of all these 
different articles imported into Great Britain 
and Ireland would he scarcely possible or 
necessary. A return moved for by Mr. Greg- 
son, M.P., shows that there were imported in 
1856 from places within the limits of the 
East India Company’s charter and other parts 
(among other articles)—542,330 lbs. of aloes, , 
4651 cwt. of borax (refined), 4505 cwt. of 
camphor (unrefined), 7,840,702 canes or rat¬ 
tans, 19,035 cwt. of cowries, 56,257 lbs. of 
cubebs, 9266 cwt. of elephants’ teeth, 1288 of 
gum asafoetida, 70,870 cwt. of gum Arabic. 
14,766 of gum shellac, and 10,975 of lac dye; 
15,557 cwt. of gutta percha, 1,502,626 cwt. of, 
raw hemp, 653,156 cwt. of raw hides, and. 




IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


187 


Chap. XXI.] 

3,238,116 lbs. of tanned bides; 30,093 cwt. of 
castor oil, 192,424 lbs. of rhubarb, 32.694 
quarters of rough rice, and 3,692,001 cwt. of 
rice (not rough or in husk); 8013 cwt. of saf¬ 
flower, 137,068 cwt. of sago, 387,639 cwt. of 
saltpetre, 1,180,180 quarters of flax and lin¬ 
seed, 264,920 quarters of rape-seed, and 
426,183 lbs. of senna ; 9,398,911 lbs. of raw 
silk, 601,461 pieces of corahs, choppas, ban¬ 
danas, Tussore cloths, Romals, and taffeties, 
34,460 lbs. of China crape shawls, scarfs, and 
handkerchiefs, 20,337 yards of China damask, 
and 18,622 pieces of Pongee handkerchiefs; 
1,408,021 lbs. of cassia lignea, 119,270 lbs. 
of cassia buds, 781,231 lbs. of cinnamon, 
1,502,315 lbs. of cloves, 14,035 cwt. of ginger, 
18,112 lbs. of mace, 462,600 lbs. of nutmegs, 
10,810,398 lbs. of pepper, 69,282 cwt. of block 
tin, 12,761 cwt. of unbleached beeswax, and 
21,620 loads of teak-wood. 

The year 1857, notwithstanding the war 
in China and the revolt in India, afforded 
many indications of the vast expansion our 
oriental commerce is destined to receive. 
Accounts moved for by Mr. Gregson, M.P., 
and published by command of the Honourable 
the House of Commons, show that the de¬ 
clared value of the British and Irish produce 
and manufactures exported from the United 
Kingdom to the East India Company’s terri¬ 
tories and Ceylon in the year 1857 amounted 
to, in all, £13,080,662, against £11,807,439, 
£10,927,694, £10,025,969, and £8,185,695, 
in the preceding years 1856,1855, 1854, and 
1853. The exports of home produce to India 
last year included £208,288 worth of apparel, 
slops, and haberdashery; £337,504 of arms 
and ammunition; £267,733 of ale and beer; 
£591,183 of brass and copper goods; £171,519 
of coals, &c.; £5,786,471 of cotton manufac¬ 
tures, and £1,147,379 of cotton yarn; for 
hardwares and cutlery, £218,878; for iron 
and steel, £1,736,440; £100,401 worth of 
linen manufactures and yarn; £558,954 of 
machinery and millwork; £160,83.7 of sta¬ 
tionery; and £552,767 of woollen manufac¬ 
tures and yarn. Umbrellas and parasols, so 
necessary in an Indian climate, figure for 
£69,320 only, and silk goods for £10,374 
only. 

The articles imported into the United 
Kingdom from India and China in 1857, and 
actually entered for home consumption, in¬ 
cluded 35,965 lbs. of cinnamon, 166,981 lbs. 
of cloves, 24,740,162 lbs. of coffee, 31,178 
quarters of wheat, 5300 cwt. of raw ginger, 
162,440 lbs. of nutmegs, 3,200,956 lbs. of 
pepper, 1,356,410 cwt. of rice (not rough nor 
in husk), and 16,862 quarters of rough (husk) 
rice. 129,211 cwt. of sago, 90,136 pieces of 
baudanas, corahs, choppas, Tussore cloths, 


Romals, and taffeties, 4639 gallons of rum, 
1,083,118 cwt. of unrefined sugar, and 
859,543 lbs. of tea. A large quantity of 
wool was imported, but none of it appears to 
have been entered for home consumption, 
although free of duty. The value of the 
above exports from England to India is not 
given. To China last year were exported 
British produce and manufactured goods to 
the value of £2,450,3.07, against £2,216,123 
in 1856, £1,277,944 in 1855, and £1,000,716 
in 1854. More than one moiety, amounting 
to £1,573,828, was composed of cotton goods, 
while woollens figured for £285,852, cotton 
yarn for £158,081, and lead and shot for 
£92,623. The articles imported from China 
to this country in 1857, and entered for actual 
consumption in the United Kingdom, included 
82,491 lbs. of ginger, 3514 pieces of bandanas 
and other silk handkerchiefs, 67,071,187 lbs. 
of tea (increased from 57,621,231 lbs. in 
1853). 

The number of British ships that entered 
inwards (India and China) in 1857 amounted, 
respectively, to 696 and 88, and the number 
of foreign vessels (India and China) to 72 and 
14. At the same time 728 British and 289 
foreign vessels cleared outwards (India), and 
122 English and 79 foreign vessels (China). 

Such of the readers of this work as reside 
in London, or resort to it, and desire to have 
a good general idea of the commerce of India, 
should visit the new museum at the East India 
House. There specimens of the natural pro¬ 
ductions and manufactures of India are ar¬ 
ranged in a manner to afford instruction even 
to the mere casual observer; to the merchant, 
the statesman, the man of science, and the 
historian, the collection must afford important 
information and profound pleasure. This 
wonderful collection had its origin in the 
Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851, 
when the East Indian collection arrested the 
attention of every visitor by its sumptuous 
riches and variety. The idea of a permanent 
collection arose from the deep interest which 
the public showed in the East Indian depart¬ 
ment of the Crystal Palace of 1851. The 
Indian compartment in that edifice was super¬ 
intended by Dr. Forbes Royle, whose labours 
for the welfare of British India have been so 
persevering and intelligent, especially in re¬ 
ference to the cultivation of cotton and other 
fibres applicable to manufactures. 

The first apartment in the new museum is 
“ the model room,” the collections in which 
illustrate the social and industrial life of India, 
Specimens of agricultural instruments, manu¬ 
facturing tools and machinery, are suggestive 
of the way in which produce is cultivated and 
gathered to the markets for exchange. The 





388 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XXI 


model room is, however, more connected with 
the social life of India, presenting miniature 
law courts, dwellings, furniture, sepoy encamp¬ 
ments. &c.; the other apartments are set apart 
for industrial objects. The first of these, 
which is presented to the visitor’s notice, is 
leather; that of Madras, which is wholly 
manufactured by natives, is much inferior to 
the Bengal, where the workmen are super¬ 
intended by Europeans. 

Paper is another manufacture which draws 
attention by its variety, and the information 
imparted as to the material from which it is 
made, but not from its excellence. The 
gunny bags, made of jute fibre, in which rice 
and other commodities have been packed, are, 
when no longer of use for their original pur¬ 
poses, converted into paper by the natives, and 
the process displays some ingenuity. The 
plantain leaf and other vegetable fibres are 
also used for this purpose. European paper 
is in request for all purposes of importance, 
and this article is likely to become a valuable 
commodity. 

Mat-work, basket-work, and other manufac¬ 
tures from fibrous materials, although they 
interest the visitor, are not regarded with 
that sense of their importance which they 
deserve. On another page the value of the 
fibrous plants of India will be examined, and 
the reader furnished with important informa¬ 
tion on this branch of Indian commerce. 

The Indians have been long famous for 
metallurgy, and the museum does justice to 
their genius in this respect. Akin in some 
degree to that art is jewellery, for which, as 
shown in the chapter descriptive of Bengal, 
Benares has obtained a reputation “ wide 
as the East.” Either alone, or as mountings 
and settings for gems, the gold and silver-work 
of Benares, presented for inspection in the 
museum, is very beautiful, and will probably 
create a taste in the West for similar speci¬ 
mens of oriental art. There are innumerable 
specimens of Bengal jewellery, and some from 
other provinces, bangles, rings, bracelets, 
brooches, tassel knots for dresses, hookah 
mouthpieces, and many other objects of dis¬ 
play or luxury. The Trickinopoly filigree- 
work is as light and elegant as that of Malta 
or Genoa. There are some rose-cut chains 
here which are perfect marvels of the gold¬ 
smith’s art. So minute is the chasing of.the 
pattern of the rose in each link, that, unaided 
by a magnifying power, the eye is unable 
to trace the delicate outline and beauty of 
form. There is a companion chain, also from 
Trichinopoly, in which the little links are 
drawn so close together as to be only visible 
on the closest inspection. It is difficult at 
first to believe that it is anything but a mere 


leqgth of solid gold wire, and only when ex¬ 
amined in the hand does its perfect flexibility 
betray its manner of construction. There are 
two waistbands, consisting one of eight and 
one of sixteen of these fairy-like chains, which 
appear as bunches of golden thread, and are 
fastened with gold clasps, set with emeralds 
and rubies. From various parts of the Bengal 
presidency some splendid examples of native 
jewelled-work have been obtained, rich with 
‘‘ barbaric pomp and gold.” There is a superb 
necklace of gold set with pearls and emeralds, 
a gold bracelet, enamelled on the inner side, 
and the outer thickly set with pearls and 
diamonds; a necklace of emeralds, pearls, and 
rubies; a bracelet of three rows of large dia¬ 
monds, about ninety in number, with a num¬ 
ber of curiously-formed gold and silver spice- 
boxes. If, however, the visitor wishes to 
obtain a fair idea of the extent to which jewels 
are worn by oriental princes, he must examine 
the great Runjeet Singh’s portrait, painted by 
a native artist. Runjeet is represented as 
sitting at his durbar. Round his neck is a 
string of 280 pearls, said to be, as a necklace 
of jewels of that kind, the largest and most 
valuable in the world. This magnificent 
ornament has recently been presented to her 
Majesty. His head-dress is a perfect mass of 
rubies and emeralds, while on his arms is re¬ 
presented a cluster of armlets of jewels of 
apparently immense size and value, one of the 
finest, a noble emerald, being spoilt by having 
a hole drilled through it in order to thread 
it on to the band over which it passes. A 
curious contrast to these magnificent samples 
of oriental jewellery is afforded by the display 
of the rude personal ornaments of the hill 
tribes of Thibet. Here are enormous silver 
chains of great weight, and such strength as to 
carry heavy arms and accoutrements; with 
native charm rings and rough-looking brace¬ 
lets, fitted in style and form to be the massive 
ornaments of such half-savage tribes. Con¬ 
spicuous among these ornaments is a broad 
band of scarlet cloth, dotted with curious 
rough greenish stones, which look like coarse 
discoloured pebbles. They are, however, 
turquoises of the largest size and purest 
water, and which, though uncut and unpo¬ 
lished, are still of considerable value. The 
gems are found amid the mountains of Thibet; 
but the hill tribes, though aware of their being 
of some value, are unacquainted with the 
method of polishing them, and so, in the 
rude way we have mentioned, adopt them in 
their natural state as personal ornaments. 
The massiveness of the solid silver armlets, 
of which many are sometimes worn at once 
by the Hindoo women, go far to explain the 
disappearance of such immense amounts of 





IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


389 


Chap. XXI.] 

silver as have been imported into India and 
China. 

References have been made, in the geo¬ 
graphical descriptions given on former pages, 
to the taste and ingenuity of the natives of 
India and China in wood-carving and in¬ 
laying ; the specimens in the museum will 
unfold the exquisite workmanship of the 
East in these departments, to many, other¬ 
wise, not likely to see it. Carving and in- 
laying of ivory and metals rank in the same 
category of works of skill, patience, and taste, 
and these are also so assorted in their proper 
compartments as to enable the beholder to 
examine them with minute and discriminative 
interest. Probably no carvings from India— 
not even the ivory-work of Bombay'—surpass 
those in “ pith.” This substance is lite¬ 
rally what its name expresses; it is taken 
from a certain plant, and is of a most deli¬ 
cate white colour. It is lighter than cork. 
The substance is useful for common purposes, 
such as the “ pith caps ” furnished to the 
European and native soldiery as a protection 
from the sun ; while the oppressive weight 
of other coverings for the head, which would 
prove effectual against the sun, is avoided. 
In this pith the natives execute beautiful 
figures: temples, shrines, tombs, palaces, are 
admirably represented; as are also the dif¬ 
ferent castes and callings of the native popu¬ 
lation. The stone and marble-work is, in 
some cases admirable, but far behind the ex¬ 
ecution of our own sculptors. 

Bareilly, Scinde, the Punjaub, and Cashmere, 
have gained reputation for lacker-work, which 
is produced as an article of much-prized 
taste and commerce in these places, for the 
rest of India. The specimens in the indus¬ 
trial rooms at Deadenhall Street are exqui¬ 
sitely beautiful. The number of articles made 
from lac in India is almost unlimited, and they 
are adapted both to domestic and household 
purposes as well as to personal ornament. 
The lackered ware differs from the lac-work, 
inasmuch as it consists only of a thin coating 
of the gum being laid over a wooden surface, 
which is subsequently adorned with the artist’s 
designs. The reputation of Lahore for the 
extreme beauty of its lackered ware stands 
foremost among all the cities of India. The 
lackered or japanned ware of China differs 
from that of India in being formed of a suc¬ 
cession of coats of an extremely poisonous 
vegetable gum, which exudes from a plant 
spontaneously, and is as different in its mode 
of production as it is in its after method of 
ornamentation. How the delicate effects of 
colour of the Indian lackered-work are pro¬ 
duced, or by what means it is that the com¬ 
bination of bright glowing colours is made to 


present the neutralized bloom which seems to 
cover the whole surface of each article, is a 
subject which has often engaged the attention 
of our artists with a view of applying the de¬ 
corative principles of this ware to similar 
ornamental work in England. Some of these 
lackered coffers and caskets from Cashmere 
and Lahore are of rare beauty, a rose-water 
sprinkler from the latter city being especially 
interesting of its kind. 

The Indian pottery resembles that of Egypt; 
some vessels in stone and metal are elegantly, 
and even classically, formed. 

The Bidree-work, which consists in the in¬ 
laying of silver upon iron surfaces, is worthy 
close inspection. It is applied in the orna¬ 
mentation of cups and vases. 

The specimens of arms are curious. It is 
the custom of the native troopers serving the 
native princes in India to prepare their sharp 
swords from the worn-out swords of our 
dragoons. The steel scabbards of our men 
prevent their weapons from retaining the 
proper edge, but the scabbards of the na¬ 
tives tend rather to promote keenness. Long 
Rajpoot and short Goorkha weapons, and 
Santal spears, have a place in the exhibi¬ 
tion. The old matchlock, and, what is re¬ 
markably strange, the old revolver musket, are 
to be seen side by side. Long before Colt or 
Adams thought of the revolving principle in 
firearms, it was used in the Deccan. Sir 
David Baird, sixty years ago, obtained, at 
Seringapatam, the specimen now displayed at 
the India-house. The frequenters of the old 
museum will remember the beautiful camel 
guns; in the new also there is a place pro¬ 
vided for them. 

In the department known as “ the large 
room ” manufacturers and political economists 
will find subjects of interest, and lovers of art 
will be no less gratified by taste in design. 
In the gallery of the large room raw products 
are set out—not only those usually imported, 
but such as have lately been introduced to 
public notice in India by men of science. On 
the basement of this great room the articles 
manufactured from these raw products are 
arranged. Woven work of rich variety and 
rare beauty is to be seen there. Muslins 
from Dacca, shawls from Cashmere, exqui¬ 
sitely delicate, tasteful alike in fabrication and 
design, meet the eye. The woven brocade 
and embroidery are beyond description ele¬ 
gant and attractive. The patterns on some 
of these works are European, but the native 
designs are in character with those of the 
remotest antiquity. M‘Culloch, in his Com¬ 
mercial Dictionary , labours to prove that 
progress is as easy in India as in the West, 
and that the allegations of unchanging, or 




390 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XXII 


very slowly changing tastes and talents are i 
without foundation. The quotations made 
by that author to establish a view which 
seems rather taken up from the affectation of ! 
originality than from a proof of its soundness, 
do not accomplish the purpose for which they 
are adduced. No writer has ever alleged 
that all oriental minds are cast, as it were, in 
a mould, and that there is no modification of 
the thought or feeling of an oriental com¬ 
munity. But what is affirmed is obviously 
true—that the spirit of one age is in the main 
the spirit of another; and that however 
diversified the circumstances of a people, and 
the events of a nation in the East, their cha¬ 
racteristics remain the same, and their habits 
and customs retain the ancient type, even 
when modified by the most startling revolu¬ 
tions and conquests : like the sea, which 
ebbs and flows, is calm and clear as the light 
it reflects, or is tossed and broken amidst the 
tumults and gloom of storms, yet it is still the 
great sea, fathomless alike in calm or conflict— 
yielding obedience to the same laws, per¬ 
forming in nature the same functions, and 
exhibiting evermore, amidst all varieties of 
action, the same characteristics. Many a 
tempest of war and passion have broken over 
the multitudes of the oriental world, many a 
season of profound agitation—such as hope, 
triumph, fear, or fanaticism can create—has 
shaken tribes, kingdoms, and empires, but, 
after all, they settle down again into the 
sameness of the past, as the waves of the 
ocean no longer beaten by the storm. If 
Mr. M'Culloch had seen the East India Com¬ 
pany’s exhibition of Indian art and manufac- 1 


i ture, he would have found sufficient proof that, 
within the meaning really attached to such 
assertions, the orientalist of two thousand 
years ago was the type of the orientalist of' 
to-day. The mental impression left on these 
textile fabrics, which are treasured as relics 
of the past, is the same as that which is now 
impressed upon the costly manufactures of 
Hindoostan, and of surrounding nations. 
This identity of style between the present 
and the past of the Eastern world is not 
incompatible with invention and improve¬ 
ment, but these are in a wonderful manner 
still made to express the same cast of thought, 
and the same idiosyncrasy of taste. The 
wings of brilliant beetles are, with extraor¬ 
dinary ingenuity, introduced into embroidered 
work; this has been a very old practice in 
China : the notices which have appeared in 
the press, of the peculiar effect of this combi¬ 
nation as a novelty, are, therefore, erroneous. 

In the room where the teas of the venerable 
merchants of the East India Company were 
periodically put up to auction, some of the 
more tasteful executions of Indian ingenuity 
are now exhibited; the room itself having 
been, by the skill of Mr. Digby Wyatt, trans¬ 
formed into an Indian temple. In proportion 
as the commerce and material progress of 
India are subjects -of interest, the contents of 
those rooms will be objects of intelligent 
study. No books on Indian commerce, and no 
histories, can convey the vivid impressions, or 
afford the ample information on this class of 
subjects, which the inspection of these pro¬ 
ducts of nature and art from our Eastern 
1 empire imparts. 


CHAPTER XXII. 

COMMERCE {Continued ):—CHIEF ARTICLES OE INDIAN COMMERCE. 


Having stated the general character of the 
commerce of British India, it is yet important to 
point attention to particular features of it as 
deserving especial notice; for amidst the great 
variety of Indian productions suitable to other 
realms, there are some of predominating im¬ 
portance. Several, which have not as yet 
become objects of general inquiry, are of such 
a character as to afford hope that their intro¬ 
duction to distant. markets will tend to the 
advantage of the world, as well as the in¬ 
creased prosperity of the territory in which 
they are produced. 

Among all the articles of Indian trade, 
none attracts more attention in England than 


that of cotton. In a former chapter * cotton 
was noticed as a production of India, and it 
was intimated that on a future page the sub¬ 
ject would be more fully treated. The cul¬ 
ture and the commerce are two different 
branches of the Indian cotton question. On 
the pages already referred to the former was 
noticed both as to its difficulties and advan¬ 
tages. In consequence of the superiority of 
the American grown cotton, efforts were put 
forth by the East India Company to introduce 
seeds from the United States, and cultivators 
from that country. This has been done for a 
series of years, and the result of those expe- 
* Chap. i. pp. 18, 19. 




Chap. XXTI.J 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


391 


viments has been a history of failures. In 
some places the climate was too moist, in 
others too dry; one class of experiments was 
made where the soil was too rich, another 
where the soil was too poor: and although in 
a few places—as at Surat, and on the Ava 
coast—success attended the attempts to culti¬ 
vate the American quality, generally they did 
not succeed. Dr. Royle places the impedi¬ 
ments whieh exist in the climatic conditions 
necessary for the American species in the 
following light:—“ The great difficulty in 
applying irrigation to cotton in India is that 
you have to deal with a plant which has been 
l’aised in the rainy season, and which neces¬ 
sarily has all the habits of one accustomed to 
moisture both of soil and climate; and yet it 
is one of which you must check the luxuriant 
growth, if you wish to have a sufficient pro¬ 
duction of flowers and fruit. This is done 
naturally in most plants by the heat and dry¬ 
ness of summer, and in Egypt, where cotton 
is copiously irrigated, by the dryness of the 
climate. But in cultivating American cotton 
in India you have a moist weather plant— 
that is, one with short roots and broad leaves— 
exposed suddenly to dryness, when, from the 
clearness of the sky and the heat of the sun, 
there must necessarily be copious evaporation. 
The Indian species, which is a moisture-and- 
drought-enduring plant, withstands both the 
suddenness and the violence of the changes, 
but then it only produces a short-stapled 
woolly cotton.” * 

The Indian cotton plant ( Gossypium Indi- 
cum, and Gossypium herbaceum of different 
botanists) grows over an extensive area of 
country. It thrives in hot and comparatively 
temperate regions, in moist soils and dry. 
The North American species ( Gossypium 
Barbadeuse) flourishes in certain low latitudes 
of the United States and in the West Indies. 
It grows in India in various places as an 
exotic, but it is not suited to the climate of 
India, which that of no part of America, 
north or south, resembles. The climates of 
America bear, in various respects, striking 
similitude to those of China. In South Ame¬ 
rica the species of cotton which flourishes 
indigenously ( Gossypium Peruvianum) differs 
from that which is proper to North America, 
as well as that indigenous to India. In 
ancient Peruvian tombs cotton wool and 
cotton fabrics have been discovered, showing 
that the species which grows there is indi¬ 
genous. 

When the vast extent of country on the 
American continent yet to be brought under 
culture, and the enterprise of such a popula- 

* Culture and Commerce of Cotton in India. By J. 
Forbes Royle, M.D., F.R.S. 


tion as now inhabits it, are taken into account, 
there does not seem the slightest prospect of 
India being ever able to compete with that 
region in the growth of the peculiar species 
of cotton indigenous to the American soil. 
Good and clean cotton has, however, been 
brought to market from various places in 
India; and it is certain that the species 
natural to the Indian soil can be greatly im¬ 
proved, and may compete with much of that 
exported to Europe from America, because of 
the- low price at which it can be sold. Al¬ 
though it is short in staple, and not easily 
spun by the machines used for American tot- 
ton, yet the natives have for ages made a fine 
thread from it, and wrought from that thread 
fabrics of great beauty. Its durability and 
strength of fibre surpass those of the American 
species. It is also noticed for taking delicate 
dyes more readily, and for swelling in the 
bleaching, so that fabrics made from it have a 
closer texture than those made from American 
cotton. 

The vast importance to English manufac¬ 
turers of a large importation of cotton from 
India may be at once understood by the 
diminishing supply of American cotton in 
proportion fir the demand. The consump¬ 
tion of cotton: in Great Britain for the past 
five years has not exhibited that steady in¬ 
crease which many have imagined who have 
been accustomed to look only at the extension 
of our export trade, as indicated by the tables. 
Thus, our consumption of cotton, which, in 
1853, reached 654,274,000 lbs., rose in 1856 
to 819,375,000 lbs., and fell again last year 
to 735,656,250lbs.; so that our consumption 
of cotton in 1857 exceeds our consumption in 
1853 only by 81,282,250 lbs., while it is less 
than that of 1856 by 83,718,750 lbs. But 
while this fluctuation is observable in the 
actual amount of cotton consumed, there has 
been, for the most part, a steady increase in 
the average cost of the raw material, which 
has risen from £18,365,000, in 1853, to 
£26,200,000 in 1856, The total value of 
production of thread, yarns, and manufactured 
goods, for the year 1853, is set down at 
£56,749,300, for 1856 at £61,484,000, and 
for 1857 at £56,212,909; or, deducting the 
cost of cotton, &e., the profits upon the 
manufacture may be taken—for 1853, at 
£38,384,300; for 1856, at £37,526,000; and 
for 1857, at £30,012,909. In other words, 
the increase in the cost price of cotton (the 
difference between 6 d., 6 \d., and 8 d. per lb.) 
has reduced the profits on the manufacture in 
Great Britain £858,300 in the year 1856, and 
and £8,371,391 in the year 1857, as compared 
with the year 1853. 

Fears are naturally entertained of the 



892 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XXII. 


increase of prices in the English market, and, 
in case of war with the United States, of such 
a failure in the supply of the raw material as 
would ruin the manufacture. Under these 
circumstances, inquiry has been made by the 
government, the East India Company, and 
the merchants and manufacturers of Liverpool 
and Manchester as to the prospects of in¬ 
creasing the import from India. Egypt, it is 
true, supplies a certain quantity. The French 
settlers at Algiers are sanguine that the 
colony will become extensively cotton pro¬ 
ducing ; and the famous African traveller, 
Ur.' Livingstone, believes that there are 
various districts which he has explored suit¬ 
able to the growth of the commodity, but as 
yet none of these sources can be relied on. 

Concerning the efforts of the French, in 
April, 1858, the Moniteur published a report 
made to the emperor by Marshal A^aillant, on 
the subject of the cultivation of cotton in 
Algeria, in which he communicated the deci¬ 
sion come to by the jury appointed to award 
the annual prize of 20,000 f. given by his 
majesty, from his privy purse, to the colonist 
who should make the greatest progress in 
that branch of agriculture. The report begins 
by stating that ike season of 1857 was very 
unfavourable to the cotton grounds, from the 
abundant rains and the lateness of the spring. 
On several points the land prepared for sowing 
had been torn up by inundations, and in others 
the growing plants had been washed away. 
In addition to this, the humidity had caused 
fevers, and workmen became very scarce and 
costly. Notwithstanding these unfavourable 
circumstances, the extent of the cotton grounds 
which escaped those causes of destruction was 
not less than in the preceding year. The 
total superfices amounted to 1600 hectares 
(2J acres each), divided as follows :—Province 
of A1 giers, 175 hectares; of Constantine, 
522 hectares; and of Oran, 903 hectares. 
From this it appears that the provinces of 
the east and west gained as much as had 
been lost in 1857 by that of Algiers, 
where the cultivation of tobacco more and 
more absorbs ground, capital, and manual 
labour. The report of the jury goes on to 
say, that the number of planters among the 
European colonists had not sensibly increased, 
but confidence in future success was unabated. 
Considerably more care was evinced by them 
in the selection of their ground for planting, 
and constant improvements were being made 
in the mode of cultivation, irrigation, &c. 
The number of native planters is stated, by 
the report, to be steadily increasing, and last 
year had reached to six hundred; but there 
still remains much to be done, in giving them 
instruction in the best mode of carrying on 


their agricultural operations in this branch. 
The jury report contains the following state¬ 
ment:—“There is every reason to anticipate 
a triumphant future in the cultivation of cotton 
in Algeria. Let the colonists persevere ; let 
them adopt the use of instruments worked by 
animals, and every other means to diminish 
the cost of cultivation; let them continue to 
attend minutely to the selection of their seed, 
in order to preserve the purity of the quality, 
and the production will amply remunerate 
them for their trouble. The government, on 
its side, will pursue its task and continue its 
encouragements. Improvements and useful 
experiments will always be the object of its 
special care; and nothing will be neglected 
to make the cultivation of cotton enter into 
the habits of the people.” The jury concludes 
by recommending that the emperor’s prize 
of 20,000 f. with the gold medal, should be 
awarded to M. Colonna de Cinarca, for his 
cultivation of cotton at Habra, in the province 
of Oran, and that honourable mention should 
be made of other planters who had competed 
for the prize. It is obvious that the French 
emperor, alive to the importance of the latter 
manufacture to France, has resolved to test 
thoroughly the capabilities of his great African 
colony for the production of the staple. It 
would be a folly if the government of India, 
a country where, for three thousand years, 
the people excelled in the manufacture, should 
be indifferent, or tardy, or illiberal. 

The grand impediment to the preparation 
of cotton in India for exportation to Europe, 
is the irregularity of the demand. The 
English manufacturers will not buy Indian 
cotton while they can get American at a price 
that will at all remunerate them; it depends, 
therefore, upon the supply from America 
whether the Indian exports sell remunera¬ 
tively at Liverpool. Of the entire quantity 
of cotton imported into and manufactured in 
the United Kingdom, nearly four-fifths in 
quantity, and more than four-fifths in value, 
on an average of years, is obtained from the 
United States. During the five years 1851 
to 1855 the proportion of the total quantity 
was seventy-eight per cent., and during the 
ten years preceding, from 1841 to 1851, it 
was eighty-one per cent. The American 
bales containing more cotton than those from 
other countries, the proportion may be taken 
at four-fifths of the whole imported. The 
supply from India has always been most irre¬ 
gular, being regulated by the price of Ame¬ 
rican cotton far more than by its own quality. 
Whenever the supply from the United States 
promises to be deficient, or the demand for 
consumption rapidly increases, raising prices 
rapidly, Indian cotton arrives to supplement 






IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


393 


Chap, XXII.] 

the American imports. Last year (1857) the 
short crop in America raised the price in 
India to such an extent as to bring 220,000 
bales more than ever had been known. This 
arises from the dirty state of the samples 
brought from India. To remedy the evil 
and secure a good supply, the late agent of 
the Honourable East India Company, in 
his last publication on cotton,* was of 
opinion that the establishment of agencies in 
India by the Lancashire merchants would 
obviate the difficulties, and obtain a regular 
and clean supply, adapted to the English 
market. In a report] - on the subject of the 
cotton culture in 1836, the company intimated 
what the work of Dr. Royle confirms in 1857, 
that the better adaptation of the machinery 
used in the spinning-mills of the north of 
England to the short staple of the Indian 
species would much promote the importation 
of this product at the English ports. 

Mr. Mackay, a talented and enterprising 
gentleman in Lancashire, visited India on 
behalf of the cotton trade some years ago, and 
reports made by him to the various chambers 
of commerce in Lancashire substantially bear 
out the opinion conveyed in these pages, that 
the hope of improvement is in proper atten¬ 
tion being paid to the commerce rather than 
the cultivation. A Lancashire merchant, in 
a letter dated the 18th of March, 1858, thus 
expressed himself on this subject:—“ Since 
Mr. Mackay made his report to the chambers 
of commerce of Liverpool, Manchester, Black¬ 
burn, and Glasgow, no improvement has 
appeared; the Indian cotton is still irregular 
in quantity as well as inferior in quality. 
Several steps, however, have been taken since 
Mr. Mackay’s visit to India towards a right 
knowledge of what is to be done. It is now 
admitted that attention must be directed 
to cotton commerce more than to cotton 
culture. The Indian cultivators must be left 
to grow their own native cotton in their own 
way. The attempt to cultivate the American 
species of cotton in India has proved a failure. 
British enterprise must be confined to getting 
the native cotton in better condition, and at a 
cheaper rate to the home market, where the 
supply will thus be both larger and more 
regular. The government has its part to do 
in improving the means of transit in India to 
the coast, and in, by better police, giving pro¬ 
tection to Europeans. The chambers of com- 

* Review of the Measures which have been adopted in 
India for the Improved Culture of Cotton. By J. Forbes 
Royle, M.D., F.R.S. 

f Reports and Documents connected with the Proceed¬ 
ings of the East India Company in Regard to the Culture 
and Manufacture of Cotton, Wool, Raw Silk, and Indigo 
in India. 

VOL. I. 


merce have their part to do in establishing 
agencies in the cotton-growing districts, for 
managing every operation after the growing 
of the crop, which is now carelessly collected, 
carelessly cleaned, carelessly housed, and 
carelessly packed. Native money-lenders 
and middlemen carry off immense profits, 
besides injuring the commerce by systematic 
frauds and adulterations. All this would at 
once be remedied by establishing European 
agencies for the purchase of cotton. Many 
years would not pass before the English 
market would obtain half its supply from the 
free labour of British India, instead of being 
so dependent on the slave states of America. 
At Liverpool in one week 1340 bales of Ame¬ 
rican sold from 4 ^d. to 8|<7. per lb., and 300 
Surats from 4f d. to 6 d. per lb. These Surats 
are suitable for spinning any hefts under 
No. 40, although some Indian cotton is only 
fit for No. 16 yarn. Indian cotton of all 
kinds can be sold at a profit in Liverpool for 
the average of 3 ^d. per lb.; so that, with the 
improved quality which the establishment of 
agencies in the East would insure, there is 
ample margin for a vast increase of Indian 
cotton commerce, independently of any im¬ 
provements in its culture, to which attention 
has hitherto been chiefly turned.” 

The opinion of Dr. Royle as to the pro¬ 
spect of prices in England remunerating the 
enterprise of culture and exportation on the 
part of Indian ryots and English agents, and 
the connection of such a speculation with the 
probability of a total failure of supply from 
America through war or other causes, is thus 
published in his work issued in 1857:— 
“Alarm is justly excited in the great manu¬ 
facturing district of Lancashire, and wherever 
much cotton is employed, at the disastrous 
consequences which would ensue in case of a 
complete deprivation of the raw material, 
should war, or any other difficulty, occur 
with or among the present great sources of 
cotton supply. As this is not likely to occur 
without some premonitory notice, directions 
might be sent, and the ryots induced to in¬ 
crease their cultivation of cotton at almost 
any time, because sowing takes place in some 
part or other of India at all seasons of the 
year; but few planters or merchants would 
venture to enter upon so extensive a specu¬ 
lation unless they had some security that the 
state of things which required their exertion 
would be permanent enough to reward their 
labour, the more especially if they knew of 
or had studied the disastrous results to Indian 
merchants in former years. Thus, in the 
year 1818 there were imported from India 
86,555,000 lbs. of cotton, but the imports fell 
to 6,742,050 lbs. in the year 1822. But the 

3 E 



HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XXII. 


30-1 


prices had rise from l\d. to 20|<Z. in the 
former, and ranged from &\d. to 8 \d. in the 
latter year. Though these prices would be 
considered favourable enough to encourage 
exports in the present day. Indeed, they 
have ranged, in the year 1856, from 4 \d. up 
to 8 d. per lb. in the London market for Indian 
cotton.” The quantity of cotton imported 
from India during 1856 was 466,781 lbs.; 
but in 1857 (from the 1st of January to the 
16th of October) the imports increased, 
amounting to 564,666 lbs. 

Some of the Lancashire manufacturers urge 
colonization as the best remedy for the diffi¬ 
culty in procuring the proper cultivation and 
cleaning of the commodity. Mr. Carpenter, 
an eminent London journalist,* meets the 
objection urged to colonization on the score 
of climate in these lines:—“We have more 
than once said that it is utterly absurd to talk 
about the climate of India as forbidding Euro¬ 
pean emigration, just as if men who settle 
unhesitatingly at Sierra Leone, Hong-Kong, 
or Belize, would shrink from a residence in 
Bahar or the Punjaub, or as if men could not 
live at their own discretion, where others are 
only too glad to live, in virtue of official 
appointments. Thousands of Englishmen 
take service under the company without being 
deterred by any considerations of climate; 
thousands more are now serving in the country 
under the royal flag. To say that independent 
residents could not accept the same terms is 
ridiculous. If British colonists cannot live in 
India, they will not go there, but no harm 
can be done by giving them the option. The 
true obstacles have consisted, first in the policy, 
and afterwards in the administration of the 
company, which looked upon independent 
settlers as the Jesuits of Paraguay would 
have looked upon a congregation of Baptists. 
At one time they succeeded in closing India 
to all but their own retainers, and Bengal was 
as absolutely inaccessible as Japan. At later 
periods, after the interdict had been removed, 
there was still the exclusiveness of a service 
as formidable as the caste of Hindoos them¬ 
selves. An independent resident in India 
found himself outside a select club, which 
club, over and above other privileges, had 
the privilege of governing him. These were 
the conditions which made Indian colonization 
distasteful, and which it is now so desirable 
to abolish.” 

It is very unlikely that the company would 
not now feel the same objection to English 
settlers as cultivators of cotton, or for any 
other purpose, that they formerly did, the 
considerations which then influenced them 
being no longer applicable. The climate, 
* Editor of the Sunday Times. 


however, is unsuitable to vigorous exertion 
on the part of Englishmen as planters; but 
the difficulty is not altogether insurmountable, 
as has been shown in the indigo plantations. 
The presence of adventurers and determined 
eolonists, wherever the climate would allow, 
would certainly promote the object, for the 
Brahmins oppose innovations of all sorts, 
however in the interest of the people, and it 
requires the presence of Europeans of a reso¬ 
lute will and vigilant circumspection to 
defeat their violence and intrigues. In the 
cases of indigo planters this has been exten¬ 
sively exemplified. 

Whatever may be said in favour of other 
fields of cultivation, India, on the whole, is 
for England the fairest, but it is difficult to 
resist the conviction, that, as soon as Indian 
imports reduce the price of American cotton 
in any marked degree, the enterprise of the 
United States will find means of competing 
successfully for the market, so as to drive out* 
the Indian produce, and, if possible, again 
obtain a monopoly. As a* question for the 
English manufacturer, this is precisely the 
state of things he would desire; but as a 
question for those whose capital might be 
in Indian cotton fields, such a prospect is cal¬ 
culated to create hesitation and doubt, and 
will deter many from that bold speculation so 
characteristic of English colonists. 

Indigo is an article of Indian commerce of 
considerable importance. It is indigenous to 
India, and is supposed to have derived its 
name from that circumstance, its ancient 
appellation having been Indica. It was well 
known in a remote antiquity as a product of 
the neighbourhood of the Indus. The first, 
or “London East India Company,” made 
large profits by this commodity, purchasing 
it at Agra at a shilling, and selling it in 
London at five shillings per pound. In con¬ 
sequence of the British colonists in the south¬ 
ern provinces of North America and in the 
West Indies successfully competing with the 
company, the latter abandoned the trade. 
Almost a hundred years ago the Anglo- 
American planters relinquished the cultiva¬ 
tion, and the French and Spanish colonists 
took it up, from whom the English bought 
what they required. 

After the revolution of the British North 
American provinces, the company's territories 
in India extending, the trade was once more 
revived. The directors made surprising 
efforts to encourage its production, purchasing 
large quantities from the native growers, and 
selling it in London at considerable loss. This 
was continued until the culture of the plant, 
and the manufacture of the dye, were under¬ 
stood in India, and the one could be grown 



Chap. XXII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


395 


and the other manufactured with profit. It is 
certain that, but for the sacrifices of the com¬ 
pany, the trade could not have taken root in 
the country. The directors procured infor¬ 
mation on the cultivation from every quarter, 
transmitting it to India to serve as a guide 
for the cultivators. For a great many years 
the result of this diligence and expenditure 
has been that India produces the best in¬ 
digo in the world. When the manufacture 
became firmly established, the company ceased 
to have any direct connection with it. 

The plantations are now in the hands of 
European speculators, whose success enables 
them in about twelve years to realize con¬ 
siderable fortunes. Frequently, however, 
failure is the result, for it is a most adven¬ 
turous enterprise. Sometimes the crop is 
entirely destroyed by drought; at other times, 
by those tremendous rain-falls common to 
India, which, at intervals, sweep away the 
labour and capital of the planter beyond hope 
of recovery; insects occasionally destroy the 
plants ; but the chief impediment is the villany 
of the zemindars, who, jealous of the planter’s 
success, hire gangs of natives to destroy his 
crops; the planter hires others to defend 
them, and bloody conflicts ensue, sometimes 
disastrous to the planter, but oftener to the 
zemindars. It is the general belief of planters 
that if there were not on the part of the 
magistrates undue sympathy for the natives 
as against the planters, the zemindars woidd 
never venture thus openly to set law and 
order at defiance. They complain that when 
these instigators of aggression are sued in the 
courts of justice, the company’s judges inva¬ 
riably side with the natives, and that literally 
there is no redress for the injured planter but 
such as he can find by his own hand and his 
own weapon, and the hands and weapons of 
those whom he hires at a rupee apiece to 
fight in defence of his property. On the 
other hand, the company’s officers assert that 
the planters generally are carried away by 
pride of race, are ruthlessly grasping, arro¬ 
gant, and violent, and ever prone to take the 
law into their own hands; that, therefore, it 
is the duty of the company’s officers to pro¬ 
tect the people from the spoliation and ill 
treatment of those settlers. It is difficult to 
determine on which side the truth lies. There 
can be no doubt of the cunning, fraud, and 
violence of the zemindars, and that the poor 
ryots are goaded by them to aggressions upon 
the planters that are unprovoked. That the 
planter is not defended by the police, but left 
by the government to his own resources, is 
too frequently the case. The general sym¬ 
pathy of the company’s officers with the 
natives rather than with European settlers 


admits of as little doubt. During the great 
mutiny of 1857, the strong sympathy of the 
civilians with the natives was frequently a 
subject of complaint, as leaving the wrongs 
of Europeans unredressed, and affording im¬ 
punity to evil doers. This arises from the 
jealousy entertained by the company’s officers 
of a European element in India which might 
compete for power and influence with them. 
Such a spirit has in times past given birth to 
injuries towards European settlers which 
created discontent in England, and gave 
occasion to those opposed to the company to 
denounce the injustice of its rule. 

Indigo seems to a great extent to be a 
forced production in India. The planters 
generally buy up the interest of the zemin¬ 
dars, and compel the ryots to grow indigo. 
The zemindars have no equitable right to 
hand over the interests of the ryots along 
with their own, whose position to them legally, 
and consequently to the indigo planter, is 
similar to that of a farmer in England who 
rents under a lease. The law on this point is 
disputed, the planter maintaining his right to 
treat the ryot as a tenant-at-will, the latter 
regarding himself as having “a tenant-right” 
so long as he pays his rent, and demanding 
liberty to sow or plant the land he occupies 
with whatever he thinks may best enable him 
to live. The indigo planters, like the zemin¬ 
dars, rule with a high hand; and whatever 
be the law of the case, the unfortunate ryot is 
too feeble to insist upon the adjustment of 
his claims according to that standard. In 
this way he is subjected to much hardship. 

An Indian periodical, in an able article, 
places the present condition of this produce, 
and the relation of the planters and ryots 
to each other, and of both to other parties 
concerned, in the following aspect:—“ The 
cultivation of indigo originally was stimulated 
chiefly by the East India Company, which 
made very large advances on the produce. 
Mr. Bell states that the exports in 1786 were 
245,011 lbs., and that it was by means of 
these advances that the quantities had ad¬ 
vanced to 5,570,824 lbs. in 1810. The ave¬ 
rage amount now exported is probably about 
9,000,000 lbs., the factories having been in¬ 
creased by the great houses, and many of 
them having been afterwards kept up at a 
heavy loss by the Union Bank—in both cases, 
we venture to think, at the ultimate cost of 
the unfortunate creditors of those houses and 
that bank. The current outlay now, in the 
purchase of seed and in labour, is, doubtless, 
large, and the annual average export value of 
the article may be henceforth stated at about 
two and a half millions sterling. But the export 
of rice from Calcutta and Arracan last year, 



396 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XXII. 


we believe, was much more than this, and it 
was raised with far less difficulty, and the 
profit on it to the people was vastly greater. 
The cultivator of indigo knows that he is 
engaged in a hazardous speculation, and that 
it is as likely as not, at the end of the season, 
that the yield of his land, instead of clearing 
off his advances, and leaving a balance of 
4 profit, will leave him in debt to the planter, 
f Then, further, he is in the hands of middle¬ 
men, who notoriously defraud him. The 
number of his bundles is most probably 
counted amiss; and in settling accounts he 
has to give all kinds of ‘customs’ into the 
intervening hands. He is, in fact, ‘in the 
books’ of the factory, and is likely to remain 
there, nolens volens, for life. On the whole, 
then, there is a great deal in the indigo 
planting system as practised in Bengal, which 
demands inquiry, and which suggests difficult 
and embarrassing questions. That it is con¬ 
nected with a great deal of severity and in¬ 
justice appears very evident; and that this 
must necessarily be the case (as is usually 
said) is a conclusion which, in our minds at 
least, does not excite either satisfaction or 
contentment. At any rate, inquiry ought 
not to be refused from the fear of injuring 
‘class interests,’ and of exciting ‘class ani¬ 
mosities,’ if the fact be that the opposed 
* classes’ are a few indigo planters on the one 
hand, and myriads of suffering and oppressed 
people on the other; or, if this ground be 
tenable, it must be also conceded that all the 
measures preliminary to the emancipation of 
the slaves in the West Indies were objection¬ 
able, and that emancipation itself was unjus¬ 
tifiable.” 

The indigo planters have also their griev¬ 
ances. It appears that they have formed an 
association to agitate for redress. An Indian 
magazine thus describes the party and its 
claims :■—“ The Indigo Planters’ Association 
numbers among its members many deter¬ 
mined and enterprising individuals, and has 
the sympathy of the mercantile community. 
They want the permanence of their rights as 
Britons ; facilities for collection of their rents 
as farmers of estates; summary processes 
against faithless cultivators, who receive 
advances for indigo, and refuse to sow; speedy 
justice ; improved communications; bridges 
that will bear hackeries and elephants; and 
roads that shall not ‘ melt away.’ They stand 
up boldly for their interests; and however 
impartial men may differ with them as to the 
remedies they demand, all must admit there 
is no sham in them; there can be little dif¬ 
ference of opinion as to their straight-for¬ 
wardness.” The Calcutta Review of Septem¬ 
ber, 1857, draws a strong contrast between 


the planters and the zemindars in favour of 
the former, alleging that the latter, having 
formed an association to look after their inte¬ 
rests, had presented in all their proceedings 
an absence of generosity and justice, and 
established themselves (as probably Lord 
Cornwallis intended in his famous settlement 
they should do) as the landed interest and 
protectionists of Bengal. 

The exportation of rice has become a vast 
trade within a few years, as may be seen 
from the reference made in the foregoing ex¬ 
tract, and this branch of commerce is likely to 
enlarge upon a scale never hitherto contem¬ 
plated. The consumption of rice in Europe 
is increasing very much, especially in the 
British Isles and France. 

The friends of India also hope that wheat 
will become a source of profitable export. 
The wheat-producing districts of India have 
not yet felt the advantage of superior culti¬ 
vation, nor of good roads and railways, when 
those portions of the country are opened up 
by such means, wheat will become an import¬ 
ant export, for India may produce much of 
the quantity which the importing countries 
of Europe require. 

Linseed, mustard, and other seeds, form 
together not only an important item in Indian 
commerce, but an increasing one, and at a ratio 
which justifies the conclusion that at a period 
not remote this will become a far more valu¬ 
able export. This is the more likely, as the 
trade is altogether modern. 

Coffee, although at present grown to more 
advantage in Ceylon, is becoming gradually 
an important export from continental India. 
It will, however, be a considerable time 
before the trade on the mainland in this com¬ 
modity rivals that of Insular India. 

The tobacco plantations are extending, and 
an export of the produce has been estab¬ 
lished, but there is no prospect of the quality 
competing with that of America. Several of 
the company’s civil servants have given atten¬ 
tion to its improved culture. 

Borax is imported extensively into India 
from Central Asia, and is exported again to 
Great Britain, to other parts of Europe, and 
to the United States. 

When noticing the natural productions of 
India, it was shown that tea is indigenous, 
and that the plants imported from China 
under the auspices of the East India Com¬ 
pany have thriven. Since writing that 
chapter reports have reached London of the 
extension of the tea plantations in the Pun- 
jaub, and of the favour with which the 
natives of India regard that grown at Ku- 
maon. It will be very long before India is 
prepared to export tea on a very large scale. 



IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


397 


Chap. XXII.] 

notwithstanding the extraordinary progress 
of its culture, and the probability that it will 
speedily become one of the most valuable 
articles of Indian produce. The natives, 
especially in the tea-growing districts, are 
acquiring a taste for it which will create a 
home market for all that is likely to be grown 
for a long time, however rapidly the planta¬ 
tions may be extended. The Kangra tea is 
in great request for native use, selling at a 
rupee, and even more, per lb. The cultiva¬ 
tion of the good qualities is at present so pro¬ 
fitable, and the desire to procure it, both in 
India and from foreign countries, is so great, 
that there can be no doubt of a widespread 
extension of the plantations. An acre of tea 
plants at present yields an average return of 
300 lbs., which, at a rupee per lb., would 
bring £30 per acre. The imports of all 
kinds, taken together, fall very lightly upon 
the cultivator, the East India Company 
nourishing the cultivation by every practic¬ 
able indulgence. The capital at present 
required for a tea plantation is comparatively 
very small. At some period, perhaps less 
remote than at present seems likely, India will 
be a competitor with China in the growth of 
the plant, even if not so soon a rival in the 
exportation of the leaf. Should war with 
China, the progress of civil strife in that 
country, a blight upon the Chinese tea-fields, 
or any other unexpected event, occur to inter¬ 
fere with its exportation thence, the produc¬ 
tion of the plant in India would be so greatly 
stimulated, that it might soon become an ex¬ 
porting country on a considerable scale. 

The reports which reached England by the 
April arrivals in 1858 indicate that interrup¬ 
tion to the tea trade, or diminished produc- 
■ tion in China, are not such improbabilities as 
a few years ago might be supposed. The fol¬ 
lowing is a review of the trade made at Hong- 
Kong in the middle of March :— 


Export from Hong-Kong, Macao, and lbs. 
Amoy, from July the 1st, 1857, to 

March the 10th, 1858 . 6,400,000 

Fouchow, from July the 1st, 1857, to 

March the 7th, 1858 . 18,850,000 

Shanghai, from July the 1st, 1857, to 
March the 5th, 1858 . 21,850,000 


Total. 47,100,000 

Canton, from July the 1st, 1856, to 

March the 10th, 1857 . 17,400,000 

Fouchow, from July the 1st, 1856, to 

March the 7th, 1857 . 19,300,000 

Shanghai, from July the 1st, 1856, to 

March the 5th, 1857 . 15,900,000 

Total. 52,600,000 

In the limes' city article of the 8th of 


May, 1858, the following statement appeared, 


throwing additional light upon the subject of 
Indian tea exportation :—“ The annual meet¬ 
ing of the Assam Tea Company took place 
this morning, Sir W. Baynes in the chair, 
when the report was adopted unanimously, 
and a dividend declared for the past year at 
the rate of nine per cent., being one per cent, 
more than in 1856. The report mentioned 
that during the late disturbances in India it 
had been deemed advisable to insure the com¬ 
pany’s tea, at one period worth £50,000, at a 
high premium, to cover all risks. Active 
assistance was afforded to the naval and mili¬ 
tary force sent to restore order in the pro¬ 
vince, and it is stated that, while the native 
servants cheerfully assisted in promoting that 
object, the independent contractors for culti¬ 
vating the lands uniformly held aloof, or sym¬ 
pathized with the disaffected.* The crop of 
the season 1857, estimated at 700,000 lbs., has 
produced 707,101 lbs., which is expected to 
realize £64,817. The crop of the present 
season will probably amount to 765,000 lbs., 
which, at a similar valuation, will yield about 
£70,125.” 

In a previous chapter, treating of the pro¬ 
ductions of India, sufficient was said of sugar, 
both in its relation to cultivation and general 
trade. The free admission to England of 
American sugars checks the Indian exporta¬ 
tion. Although the British public set a 
higher value upon the latter than formerly, 
yet they have not acquired a taste for Indian 
sugar, and the richer saccharine produce of 
the cane of the West Indies commands the 
market. 

The magnitude of the opium production, 
and of the traffic, have been referred to else¬ 
where, both in this chapter and that which 
states the productions of the Indian soil. Its 
commercial effects in relation to China, its in¬ 
fluence upon the exchanges, and upon the Euro¬ 
pean silver drain, have beeii incidentally noticed. 
The following occurs in a recently published 
number of an Indian magazine “ The trade 
in opium has grown, and is likely to grow on. 
The question of government connection with 
it is much misunderstood at home, and is 
sometimes argued, as though the government 
here could, if it chose, suppress its cultivation 
by prohibitory laws. This, however, we fear, 
is impossible, and the government monopoly 
therefore, in so far as it operates as a restric¬ 
tion, both on the cultivation, and the use of 
the drug in this country, is a very important 

* It may here be observed, en passant , that the spirit 
displayed by the zemindar class throughout India towards 
the British government is illustrated by this experience 
of the Assam Company. The commerce and productions 
of India will no doubt be influenced by the general dis¬ 
affection of this class. 












308 


HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 


[Chap. XXII. 


benefit. The case in China wears a very dif¬ 
ferent aspect. The smuggling of opium in 
armed vessels, in connivance with the Chinese 
officials, who are bribed and corrupted, and 
the consequences to myriads from the use of 
the drug, render the traffic only second to 
the slave trade (if, indeed, it he second even 
to that) in iniquity and cruelty. But whether 
it could be suppressed, save by such a com¬ 
bination of all nations as is directed against 
the slave trade, is very doubtful. The only 
practical remedy that we know in our own 
country, and among ourselves, is for public 
opinion to deal with these opium traders as it 
does with pests and nuisances to society, who 
are living by pandering to the vilest passions, 
and accumulating wealth, by means on which 
the curse of God must certainly rest for ever. 
But very different has been our conduct. 
We have boasted of our enlightenment, and 
of our ‘ forbearance ’ to the Chinese, and have 
sneered at their barbarism and folly; while 
our Christian gentlemen, honoured and exalted 
in society, have been using means to poison 
them by thousands for filthy lucre’s sake ; and 
not a few, who have called themselves Chris¬ 
tians and Englishmen, have been parties to 
that atrocious system of slave dealing, which 
annually consigns thousands of entrapped 
Chinese as hopeless slaves to Cuba, and as 
worse than hopeless slaves to the Peruvian 
guano islands. In truth, no offence more dis¬ 
graceful than the conduct of multitudes of 
English traders to the people of China has 
been committed in the annals of commerce. 

“ The present war with China is likely to 
end as the first did, in an enormous increase 
of smuggled opium, or perhaps the traffic will 
be still further stimulated by the importation 
being legalized.* Since the last war the 
import of opium into China has increased 
from twenty to more than seventy thousand 
chests, and this war will doubtless lead to a 
further expansion of the traffic.” 

The following statements in reference to 
the opium trade are correct, and will furnish 
the reader with a general view of its cha¬ 
racter commercial and morally :— 

Opium, which in Europe is one of our most 
valuable medicines, but which in China feeds 
a depraved taste, is manufactured from the 
juice of the white poppy, a small quantity of 
which is grown in Turkey and Persia, and 
also in China, but it is cultivated to the 
greatest extent in India, both in the British 
dominions and in the independent native 
states. The process of cultivation and manu¬ 
facture may be shortly described. The finest 

. * Virtually, it is legalized already; opium is as freely 
imported, and almost as openly, as if a proclamation of 
the emperor sanctioned it. 


soil is required for the plant. The seed is 
sown in November. The preparation of the 
ground, and the subsequent weeding and 
watering, require much attention. The time 
for collecting the juice is in February and 
March. The poppy heads are then cut or 
scratched with a sharp instrument, and a 
milky juice exudes, which becomes brown in 
colour and thick in consistency by exposure 
to the sun and air, and is carefully collected 
by the farmer and his family. This is the 
crude opium. In Bengal this is delivered 
by the small farmer to the agent of the East 
India Company. It is then prepared under 
the inspection of these agents for the China 
market. The principal districts in which the 
poppy is grown are Patna, Benares, Bahar, 
and Malwa, from which the different kinds of 
drug derive their names. In Bengal it is 
grown exclusively for the government, under 
severe penalties for any infraction of the laws. 
It is understood also to be a forced produc¬ 
tion, which could not be entered upon with 
profit to the farmers but for advances in 
money made by the government. This point 
is disputed; but the poppy has undoubtedly 
occupied some of the finest land formerly used 
for indigo, sugar, and other produce. 

The opium is prepared by the government 
agents for the China market by rolling it into 
large balls, covered with a coating of opium 
paste and poppy leaves, so as to exclude the 
air; it is then packed in chests (forty balls to 
a chest), and transferred to the government 
warehouses at Calcutta, where the drug is put 
up to auction at the government sales, of 
which there are four each season, at intervals 
of a month, commencing with December or 
January. At these sales the drug sells at prices 
varying from seven to sixteen hundred rupees 
a chest, containing 116 lbs. weight, and yield¬ 
ing a profit to the government of from £40 
to £120 per chest. Their total revenue from 
this source, including a transit duty on the 
Malwa exported from Bombay, has now 
reached £4,000,000 stealing, and is estimated 
in Lord Dalhousie’s minute at £5,000,000 
sterling for the year 1857. Malwa opium is 
that grown in the independent native states. 
It must all pass through Bombay, where, in 
order to keep down its production, it is 
charged with a duty of four hundred rupees 
(£40) per chest. 

# The merchants in India purchase the opium 
either on their own account, or for mercantile 
houses in China or elsewhere, and it is then 
shipped in fast-sailing vessels capable of car¬ 
rying from five hundred to a thousand chests. 
Of late years the monthly steamers of the 
Peninsular and Oriental Company have carried 
cargoes of the drug to China. 




Chaf. XXII.] 


IN INDIA AND THE EAST. 


399 


The quantity thus imported into China 
from both sides of India now exceeds seventy- 
five thousand chests, roughly estimated at 
£8,000,000 sterling. A portion also goes to 
Singapore for consumption throughout the 
islands of the Eastern Archipelago. 

On arrival in China (say at Hong-Kong), 
the opium was at one time transferred to large 
receiving ships stationary in the harbour, hut 
of late years it has been stored largely on 
shore with the permission of our authorities. 
From thence supplies are forwarded in small 
schooners and other fast-sailing craft to dif¬ 
ferent points on the coast, according to the 
demand. 

At these coast stations there is no other 
trade carried on but that in opium. The 
drug is transferred from the small schooners 
to ships permanently anchored there, and the 
local Chinese government makes no attempt 
whatever to interfere, as it is enriched by the 
bribes or fees of the native dealers. These 
dealers come off in boats to purchase the 
opium, bringing silver in payment; but if the 
station be the outer anchorage of one of the 
free ports,—such as Shanghai, Fouchow, 
Amoy, or Canton,—the sale is usually made 
on shore in exchange for silver or Chinese 
produce, and an order given on the ship for 
delivery of the quantity sold. 

The opium being thus conveyed into the 
country by the native dealers, it undergoes a 
process of boiling down to fit it for smoking. 
This reduces the weight one-half, so that one 
chest of the drug yields only half a chest of 
the smokeable matter. It is then retailed at 
smoking-shops, or purchased by the wealthier 
classes for use at home. The laws against 
smoking are now so completely in abeyance, 
that the smoking-shops in the free ports are 
almost as numerous as our own public-houses. 
Although this freedom from legal restraint 
exists, there is no question that the moral 
feeling of the Chinese government and people 
is against the indulgence, and it is this which 
contributes in some measure to keep down 
the consumption. 

Let us now trace, as shortly as possible, the 
course of this trade. Before the year 1800 
only a small legal trade in opium was carried 
on with China, but in that year the drug was 
made contraband by the Chinese government. 
This was done in consequence of a memorial 
from a leading statesman, who makes it a 
“subject of deep regret that the vile dirt of 
foreign countries should be received in ex¬ 
change for the commodities and the money of 
the empire, and fearing lest the practice of 
smoking opium should spread among all the 
people of the inner land, to the waste of their 
time and destruction of their property,” he 


requests that “ the sale of the drug should be 
prohibited, and that offenders should be made 
amenable to punishment.” In spite of this, 
the annual importations rose gradually from 
two thousand chests in 1800 to five thousand 
in 1820. Till 1820 opium had been mixed 
up with the legal merchandize at the port of 
Canton, but in that year the authorities again 
became alarmed at the extent of the traffic 
and obliged the merchants to give security 
that no opium was on board before the ship 
could discharge her cargo at Whampoa ; this 
led to the storing of it in receiving ships at 
Lintin, at the mouth of the Canton River, 
and this system continued to the year 1834-. 
when the importations exceeded twenty thou¬ 
sand chests. During the period from 1820 to 
1834 occasional collisions took place between 
the native smugglers and the Chinese autho¬ 
rities, arising out of disputes as to the amount 
of fees, but none occurred between that go¬ 
vernment and the British receiving ships.* 

In continuing this narrative we quote from 
Williams’ Middle Kingdom :—“ Towards the 
close of the East India Company’s charter, in 
1834, the contraband trade in opium, off the 
Bogue and along the coast eastward, had 
assumed a regular character. The fees paid 
for connivance at Canton were understood, 
and the highest persons in the province were 
not ashamed to participate in the profits of 
the trade. The attempts to sell it along the 
eastern coast had been mostly successful, and 

almost nothing else could be sold.The 

increasing demand at Namoa and Chinchew 
(on the coast), led to the frequent dispatch of 
small vessels, one taking the place of another, 
and finally to stationing receiving ships there 
to afford a constant supply. The local autho¬ 
rities, finding their paper edicts quite power¬ 
less to drive them away, followed the practice 
of their fellow-officers at Canton, and winked 
at the trade for a consideration. It is not, 
however, right to say that the venality and 
weakness of these officers invalidated the 
authenticity of the commands they received 
from court; however flagitious their conduct 
in rendering the orders of none effect, it did 
not prove the insincerity of the emperor and 
his ministers in issuing them. By the year 
1834 the efforts of the local authorities to 
suppress the trade resulted in a periodical 
issue of vain prohibitions and empty threats 
of punishments, which did not more plainly 
exhibit their own weakness in the eyes of the 
people than the strength of the appetite in 
the smokers.” 

The opium vessels are all well armed, but 
chiefly as a precaution against pirates, which 
swarm on that coast. Their being so well 
* The Opium Traffic. 




400 HISTORY OF THE 

armed, however, was doubtless calculated to 
deter and overawe the contemptible Chinese 
navy, had the mandarins been disposed to 
attack them; but although there has been 
more than one serious tragedy in conflict with 
pirates, there does not appear to have been 
any actual encounter between the opium ves¬ 
sels and the authorities on the coast. 

During the years 1837 and 1838, however, 
attempts were made by some British mer¬ 
chants to smuggle the drug into Canton, which 
led to serious collisions and disturbances on 
the river . Captain Elliot, her majesty’s super¬ 
intendent of trade, took measures, along with 
the Chinese authorities, to put a stop to these 
highly irregular proceedings on the part of a 
few, and these measures proved effectual. But 
meanwhile the imperial court at Pekin was 
organizing plans of a much more extensive 
kind to annihilate the whole trade, and to stop 
the smoking of the drug. A Chinese states¬ 
man of the name of Heu Naetse sent up a 
memorial to the emperor, praying that opium 
might be legalized, as the 'best method of 
dealing with an unavoidable evil. Two other 
statesmen, Choo Tsun and Heu Kew-, memo¬ 
rialized the emperor in favour of an opposite 
course, requesting that the existing laws 
should be put in force with the utmost 
rigour. * 

The prohibitory councils prevailed with the 
emperor ; and although these measures utterly 
failed, it has been well said by a writer in the 
North British Review —“Ho man of any 
humanity can read, without a deep and very 
painful feeling, what has been reported of the 
grief, the dismay, the indignation of men in 
authority, and the emperor, on finding that 
their utmost efforts to save their people were 
defeated by the craft and superior maritime 
force of the European dealers, and by the 
venality of their own official persons, on the 
coast.” 

The prisons were soon crowded with victims, 
and death by strangling was inflicted in 
several instances on smokers and native 
dealers. An imperial commissioner, Lin, 
was sent to Canton to proceed against the 
foreign merchants. On his arrival there, 
in March, 1839, he immediately put the mer¬ 
chants under arrest, compelled them, through 
her majesty’s superintendent of trade, to 
deliver up the whole of the opium then on 
the coast, amounting to 20,283 chests, and 
formally destroyed it by mixing it with lime 
and salt, and casting it into the sea. For 
some months after this opium was almost 
unsaleable, and the prohibitory measures 
against smoking it were so effectual, that the 

* What is the Opium Trade ? 


BRITISH EMPIRE [Chap. XXII. 

consumption fell to less than a tenth of what 
it had been. 

The war which ensued, although it arose 
out of the seizure of the opium as the imme¬ 
diate cause, really sprung from one more 
deep-seated and more remote in point of 
time. This was “the arrogant assumption 
of supremacy over the monarchs and people 
of other countries claimed by the Emperor of 
China for himself and for his subjects, and 
our long acquiescence in this state of things.” 
The war thus commenced in 1840, and con¬ 
cluded in August, 1842, however, decided not 
only the superiority of the British arms, but 
convinced the imperial court that further 
attempts to put down the opium trade were 
vain. Thenceforward the laws against smok¬ 
ing became more and more lax, whilst the 
trade, nominally contraband, went on with 
fewer restrictions than before. At the pre¬ 
sent time the trade has assumed all the im¬ 
portance of an established recognised traffic, 
and the merchants engaged in it, including 
nearly the whole foreign community in China 
engaged in commerce, shelter themselves 
under the plea of the sanction given to it by 
the British government, and the alleged in¬ 
sincerity of the Chinese in desiring to pro¬ 
hibit it. In China itself also the growth of 
the poppy has been extending, with the con¬ 
nivance of the local authorities. The quantity 
thus grown is not positively known, but it 
was stated on good authority as ten thousand 
chests so far back as 1847. It is inferior to 
the Indian drug, and is used for mixing 
with it. 

Of late years the fibrous plants of India 
have been extensively cultivated, under the 
auspices of government, for purposes of com¬ 
merce. Several new species have been dis¬ 
covered, admirably adapted either for export 
as raw produce, or being first subjected to cer¬ 
tain processes of manufacture. Assam is par¬ 
ticularly prolific in these descriptions of com¬ 
modities. In Bijnore, Upper Assam, hemp 
is made by the natives from the sunn and sunny 
plants. Good flax has been gathered near 
Meerut. Gunny bags, in which cotton is 
exported, has of late been made from this 
fibre. The upper - provinces of India are 
peculiarly adapted for the growth of flax; 
that of Seharunpore has been pronounced 
equal to the produce of the north of Ireland. 
From time immemorial flax was grown in 
India for the purpose of expressing oil from 
the seed; but of late attention has been di¬ 
rected to it for the fibre. Still India exports 
rather substitutes for flax and hemp than 
those commodities. 

The extent to which we have hitherto been 
dependant upon Russia for these fibres may be 










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